Real-Life Communication
As a forester for a timber company, an important part of your job
involves keeping the community informed about how the forests are being managed.
After all, the forests are a resource important to all of us.
You have
just received a phone call from a newspaper reporter. He's gotten wind of
a rumor that your company is indiscriminately plowing down forests. The reporter
wants you to start talking. Since you spend a lot of your time talking with
the local media, you know them, and they've come to trust your integrity.
You've never talked to this reporter before, however, so he must be new to
the forestry beat.
"Whoa," you say. "We're just doing some spacing
up here. You know, making room for new growth."
"Oh," says the reporter,
sounding confused. "So are you clear cutting or selective logging?"
This
situation is a ticking time bomb. Unless you carefully explain the purpose
and method of spacing trees, this rookie reporter could go back to the paper
thinking your company is bulldozing the forest. You need to explain this situation
very carefully.
You quickly pull out your forestry code book to give
this reporter a complete rundown on what spacing is all about:
Spacing
is the cutting of undesirable trees within a young stand to reduce competition
among residual trees for water, nutrients and sunlight. The cut trees are
usually not removed from the site. Spacing is done to:
- Control density to meet tree growth objectives
- Meet biodiversity and wildlife habitat resource objectives
- Maintain or enhance forest health
- Manage species composition and stand structure
- increase stand value
Typically, the effects of reducing stand density are:
- An increase in growth of residual trees
- An increase in juvenile wood production
- Avoidance of height growth repression that can occur in high density stands
growing on poor sites
You scan over the information and quickly realize this
reporter is not going to understand an explanation in this form, nor is he
prepared to listen for that long. Since he's new to the environment beat,
you decide you'd better explain spacing to him in terms he and his readers
can understand.
In two paragraphs or less, explain the reasons for
spacing as set out above.