Supplementing forest ecosystem health projects on the ground

Understanding the functions and processes of ecosystems is critical before implementing forest ecosystem health projects on the landscape. Silvicultural treatments such as thinning, prescribed fire, and reforestation can simulate disturbance regimes and landscape patterns that have regulated forest ecosystems for centuries. As land managers we need to understand these processes, including historical disturbance regimes and then determine where on the landscape the forests are at high risk to uncharacteristic disturbances. By using our knowledge of ecosystem processes we are developing site specific management actions such as the Deadwood Ecosystem project. Management activities from the Deadwood EM project wili provide for sustainable ecosystems in the future because these activities simulate disturbance regimes and landscape patterns of the past. Monitoring, adaptive management, and the human dimension must become key components of ecosystem management if we are to fulfill our role as land stewards and leaders in conservation biology.