The Ecology and Silviculture of Oaks

The current trend in managing forests and forested landscapes is away from a narrow focus on sustaining timber and other commodity outputs and toward a broader philosophy of sustaining desired ecosystems. This shift has been wrought by and is consistent with changing social values, scientific advances in ecology, and society s increasing awareness of environmental problems. This book is therefore designed and intended as a source of ideas on how to think about oak forests as responsive ecosystems. Divided into two sections, the book focuses on oak ecosystems in the United States as well as providing much application to other regions such as Europe and the Mediterranean. The first section includes chapters on the ecological characteristics and distribution of oak species and the various kinds of oak forests in the United States, differences among them and how they have been classified. The second section includes chapters on site productivity, stand development, silviculture, and growth and yield."