ABSTRACT
Silviculture has been viewed as wood production with few peripheral outputs or concerns. As environmental awareness has grown, this has been surpassed by a more balanced perspective. The primary task, the growing and harvesting of wood need not negate, or even strongly compromise, environmental goals. By selecting the right silvicultural prescription, natural forests, along with forest tree plantations, can both encourage wood output and promote a range of environmental benefits. Wood-first agroecosystems are inclusive under the heading of silviculture and, by extension, forestry. The logical partition with the agriculture-forestry dichotomy is to roughly include agroforestry where wood production is a primary or a joint purpose; other systems lie elsewhere. Yields and environmental benefits can accrue in managed forests, dedicated plantations, and in agricultural settings. The latter brings about an expansion of traditional silviculture. The silvicultural options are quite extensive, many have remained unnoticed and unexplored.
