PS 57-103: Tracking forest change, guiding forest management: Stewardship science in the conserved wildlands and woodlands of New England

There are remarkably few rigorous, long-term evaluations of how forestry and conservation-management practices affect forests in the eastern United States. Managers frequently conduct operations to control forest structure or composition, improve wildlife habitat, remove invasive species, or influence biogeochemical processes, etc. without comparing the activity's results with unmanipulated control areas. Conversely, where research projects do exist in unmanaged, they are seldom coupled with adjacent comparable lands that are actively managed.A group of scholars recently proposed a bold conservation vision for New England, where 70% of the region's forests would be permanently protected from development. Ninety percent of these forests would be considered" Woodlands" and managed for forest products, wildlife habitat, recreation, aesthetics, etc.; ten percent would be considered" Wildlands" or reserves, subject to minimal human impact and shaped only by the environment.