Integrating Ecological Concepts with Natural Resource Management of Southern Forests.

Natural resource management must integrate commercial development and use of forest resources with the maintenance of ecological values. The "New Perspectives" program of the U.S. Forest Service is responding to increased public environmental awareness and legislative mandates in placing a greater emphasis on ecosystem sustainability and non-traditional utilization of national forestlands. The forest of the southern United States is a complexity of associations developed along topographic and environmental gradients and shaped by natural disturbances and anthropogenic perturbations. It is highly fragmented as a result of past clearing for agriculture and timber harvesting and patterns of land ownership. Southern forests, in contrast to those in other regions, are mostly privately owned. This fragmentation is being maintained by current urbanization and industrialization as the population of the south increases. Our purpose is to identify ecological themes and concepts compatible with the stewardship philosophy of the Forest Service's New Perspectives that can be applied to the management of sustainable southern forest resources. Of special concern are the maintenance of biological diversity, watershed and water quality protection, and the assessment of regional land-use effects on the integrity of forest ecosystems and on continued forest productivity. Ecological principles must be integrated with natural resource management on landscape and regional scales to achieve sustainability of the southern forest ecosystem.