Intensively managed forest plantations in the Pacific Northwest: Conclusions

Abstract

Some common themes that emerged from the symposia and papers are the following: • IMFPs represent the Northwest's best chance to be competitiv e in global wood product markets of the future. • Despite considerable improvement in productivity, the PNW currently cannot produce wood as quickly and as cheaply as other parts of the world. • To remain competitive, the PNW will need to lower rotation ages and reduce costs while retaining the social license to operate. • Major techn ical innovations in growing and processing wood will be key to improving the competitive position of the PNW. Significant investment in research and development will be needed. • The public is concerned abo ut the environmental implications of IMFPs. Thus, it is important to make practices as environmentally sound as possible, but simply dumping more science on people will not make these concerns go away. • Conclusions about the positive or negative effects of IMFP depend significantly on the basis of comparison (a city, a housing development, a wild forest) and the geographic scale (stand, region, globe). • An argument can be made that obtaining our wood from IMFPs can reduce the disturbance to our remaining native forests, but that argument is difficult for most people to accept without legal guarantees. • With or w ithout IMFPs, much of the land in the PNW has no higher economic use than forestry, and its primary species (Douglas-fir) has many desirable qualities. Thus, the PNW is likely to remain under forest cover and to support a vibrant forest products industry far into the future.