ABSTRACT
Regeneration is key to sustainable forest management because measures taken by the manager at this stage affect development of the next stand and even beyond. Regeneration choices must be appropriate for current management objectives and flexible enough that future options are retained. Because forests can be long-lived, forest managers continuously face the risk that changing conditions in the future will negate the assumptions on which they based their current decisions. The importance of actively intervening to restore forests, using standard and novel regeneration techniques, is not universally recognized (Keddy and Drummond 1996). Planting or direct seeding under afforestation may be the only appropriate method to restore degraded land, but natural invasion may also play a role. In the rehabilitation of forests, some groups advocate relying on natural regeneration or simply letting successional dynamics do the job of regeneration and restoration (Young 2000). Natural regeneration techniques, however, are not innately superior or always more appropriate for restoring forest ecosystems than artificial techniques. Where management objectives are best served by controlling the timing of restoration and the species composition of the restored forest, active intervention at the regeneration stage is critical. Intervention must be based on management objectives, informed by evaluation and interpretation of site conditions, and incorporate silvicultural knowledge and skills.
