For well over a century, the forests of Virginia have been subjected to high-grade logging, fire suppression, road building, grazing, mining, and invasion by non-native species of plants and animals. These activities have eroded or compacted soil, deposited large amounts of sediment in streams, fragmented wildlife habitats, removed or reduced the abundance of healthy seed trees of desirable lumber species, facilitated the spread of invasive tree diseases and pests, and caused the loss of native flora and fauna. Most of Virginia’s remaining woodlands are now in a degraded condition and overstocked with low value trees.

For these reasons, VAFW supports the development and implementation of Restoration Forestry on public lands. The primary goal of Restoration Forestry is restoring natural processes and resilience to forests through methods that mimic natural cycles, historic forest composition and structure, and disturbance regimes. Extraction of forest products is a by-product of restoration, not the goal. A multitude of forest values are conserved by restoration practices including old growth, carbon storage, clean water supply, forest-interior wildlife habitat, and recreational potential.

The principles of Restoration Forestry were defined by scientists and forest advocates in: DellaSala, D. A., A. Martin, R. Spivak, T. Schulke, B. Bird, M. Criley, C. van Daalen, J. Kreilick, R. Brown, and G. Aplet. 2003. A Citizen's Call for Ecological Forest Restoration: Forest Restoration: Principles and Criteria. Ecological Restoration 21(1):14-23. http://www.virginiaforestwatch.org/docs/RestorationPrinciples.pdf

In some cases, a reference historic forest (before large-scale anthropogenic disruption by logging, mining, etc.) may be sufficiently documented to serve as a model for restoring the current forest. Where historic forests are not well documented, methods that foster native biodiversity on local and regional scales and allow natural disturbance regimes to dominate succession may be appropriate. In general, Virginia’s hardwood forests were historically uneven-aged with disturbance regimes based on patchy wind throws, insect infestations, and occasional small-scale, low intensity fires.

Restoration forestry uses three approaches. First is protection of areas of high ecological integrity, such as intact natural areas, tracts of old-growth forests, large roadless areas, Wilderness areas, and unimpaired streams. Second is passive restoration, such as the reduction or cessation of destructive logging, road-building, livestock grazing, mining, building of dams and water diversions, off-road vehicle use, and alteration of fire regimes. Third is active restoration, including prescribed burning, timber stand improvements such as thinning and pruning, road obliteration, removal of barriers to fish passage and water diversions, removal or control of invasive species, fuel treatment, and planting of riparian buffer strips.

Restoration project planning should be based on an assessment that identifies ecological problems, defines appropriate restoration methods based on scientific data, incorporates local knowledge and utilizes local labor, makes use of a process that facilitates transparency and communications with local communities, designs treatments that are the least intrusive options available, avoids negative cumulative effects on watersheds and wildlife, and complies with all local, state and federal laws and regulations. The project should also include mechanisms for monitoring, evaluation, and adaptation of results.

A trained, well-compensated workforce is essential for restoration to meet high ecological standards. Also essential is the development of markets for low value timber to support the economics of restoration activities.

Restoration forestry is still a young science. Currently, much of the work to define its concepts and practices is taking place out West due to the critical need to deal with massive wildfires. However, the privately-owned Pioneer Forest in the Missouri Ozarks demonstrates solid success with more than a half-century of uneven-aged management in hardwood forest types similar to those in Virginia. Specifically, single-tree selection harvests at Pioneer have restored high quality oak-hickory forests, allowed the sustainable, continuing harvest of high-grade lumber, and protected significant natural communities. “Applying single-tree selection as part of an uneven-aged forest management program,” say Pioneer managers, “most closely mimics the natural process which occurs when a single tree or small group of trees in the forest succumbs to natural mortality. Such small-scale disturbances as lightning strikes or insect attack are the most common type of disturbance affecting late-successional forests. It has been the only forest management technique practiced on Pioneer Forest since the 1950’s.”

In addition, Fernow Experimental Forest, a U.S. Forest Service Timber and Watershed Research facility in Parsons, WV, Parsons, West Virginia 26287, is conducting research on uneven-aged management of Appalachian hardwoods. A group from VAFW toured Fernow in fall of 2008, and VAFW hopes that techniques developed at Fernow will further the goals of restoration forestry.