The Tenents of Basic Foundational Forestry

Basic Premises of Forestry In North America in the 20th Century

By Bill Doer.

1) The Doctrine of Timber Primacy:

Timber is the chief product of the forest. All else that comes from the forest is by product. Of secondary interest; Water, Forage, Wildlife, and the rest, including recreation. Indeed, people are a nuisance in the forest.

Wood is and always will be a necessity for it has no true substitutes. Its consumption is assured. Its consumers may be taken for granted.

In fact, there is going to be a shortage of timber.
The central problem in forest management is the biological and engineering problem of growing more timber.

2) The Doctrine of Sustained Yield.

To fulfill societies obligations to it's descendants, and to stabilize communities, each generation should sustain it's resources at a high level and hand them along undiminished.

The sustained yield of timber is an aspect of man's most fundamental need: To sustain life itself.

3) The Doctrine of the Long Run.

Nature moves and changes slowly. She takes a long time to accomplish such purpose as the growing of timber. Society must adapt itself to this fact. Be patient. Curb selfish short-sighted interests. Such as those of private enterprise, and notably small enterprise.

Look to the past. The future will be like the past. Indeed, should be like the past.

4) The Doctrine of Absolute Standards.

The forest is a living thing with own ends and its means for attaining them under natural law.

The successful manager, regardless of his location or ownership, finds his goals and guides in the forest itself, by looking there and by listening to what the forest tells him.
People are not to be trusted in such matters.

Thus the manager plants those kinds of trees best suited to the site, carries the stock of growing timber that nature has shown she is capable of carrying. He aims to produce wood of high quality and maximum quantity. And this again is the aim of the forest.
Needless to say, idle land is a cost to society.

From Doer's 1979 textbook on Forest Management.