Vol. 16—1962 - NorthEastern Weed Science Society

34
THB USB OF HBR,BlCIDBSIN FORBS'J:"MANAGBMENT
Wuu..n F. Muri8og.~""
J
..I·am go1ag eortla1Ce It-mybwIlDe8*:iodayto ~;ii6DIisl~'lIlyour~..r Jl~ -,
tb1s not from any feeling ofmal1cEltoWaidsyoUor from diD'titb8rnpessim1s'rri'WtI1Cb has
as Its goal the negation of all construet1ve thought. Rather my hope Is that what 1 have
to say will sharpen your notions about the resource weforesters work with and hetghten
your appreciation of the problems that coufront us.
One of our biggest problems at the moment is dec1dIDgwhat Is a weed. IrODicas
it may seem, this Is actually the case in many parts of the region. Our forests on the
Atlantic seaboard are extremely complex biologically. We have many tree spec1es
that reach merchantable size and many that have a present or potential use in terms of
the wood that they yield. Then toft there are wide regional differences among the for·
ests of the Northeast •• from the boreal forests of northern Maine to the pine barrens
of NewJersey. Bach vegetational region can lay claim to a number of species that
are commercially desirable or soon will become so. In one forest with which I am.
famWar, there are upwards of 20 spec1es that reach tree size. At the moment, ODe
is about as good as the other in terms of the financial returns we can hope to gain by
se1l1ngthem, and I for· one would be reluctant to call any of them weeds.
One cannot escape the fact that the Northeast Is a forested country. The rural
landscape is a forested one and this becomes particularly evident as one travels the
hUlcountry to the north of here. Woods we have lots IIf. And as the miles roll by
and the forested landscape unrolls before your eyes. the realization comes to you that
this Is a wild crop over which man exerts only minor control. Mlch of it, like Topsy,
Just grows. The degree of stocking, the species composition and the distribltiOD of
age classes is none of our doing; the events that shaped the forests of today are now
history and it is sobering to discover that many of the chaDges that brought about the1r
present cond1tiODwere similarly beyond our control.
As U the wide extent and the biological complexity of the resource were not enough
to deal with, we are sooner or later brought face to face Ir1th the ownership pattern
that underlies this resource. It too is complex in the ead:reme. Land ownerships in
the reglon are characteristically small and the land is owned and taxes paid on it by
people who have a whole arsenal of reasons for wanting to do 80. Bven U it were physically
possible, let alone financially desirable, to manage these forests intensively over
wide areas, management prescriptions would falter and fa1lin the face uf such an
ownership pattern. Bothsocially and economically. then, our contrel of the resource,
crude as it may be, 18 further constrained and we are reduced to the role of consultants
who, by our powers of persuasion, hope to influence others to do what we think to be
the r1gbt thing in the right place at the right time.