Hamish Kimmins's Books

Balancing Act

Environmental Issues in Forestry

By: J P Hamish Kimmins

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Balancing Act

Environmental Issues in Forestry

By: J P Hamish Kimmins

In the past decade, there has been much debate over the environmental impact of forestry. People are justifiably concerned about what is happening to the local and global forest environments, but they are also confused by the polarized rhetoric that has characterized both sides of the debate. In Balancing Act, Hamish Kimmins calls for a balanced, more objective approach to forestry issues in order to bridge the gap between the most extreme opponents in the debate. He suggests that we need to begin with a common understanding of what forestry is about and how forest ecosystems work. He outlines the scientific and ecological aspects of the major environmental issues facing British Columbia and the world today, arguing that we need to disentangle the scientific from the value-based social aspects of these questions. He also contends that much of the current debate about forests and their management ignores the time dimension of ecosystems, and he calls for a more dynamic view of current environmental issues in forestry -- one that accounts for change. The first few chapters provide an outline of the basic principles of forestry and ecology, and subsequent chapters discuss the major environmental issues facing forestry in the 1990s. These include clearcutting, slashburning, management chemicals, old growth, biological diversity, 'new forestry, ' climate change, acid rain, the comparison between temperate and tropical forestry, and long-term decisions in forestry. Balancing Act is essential reading for those who are searching for an objective, accurate, and readable evaluation of the issues at the heart of the forestry/environment debate. By emphasizing that forests are not static but change over time, Kimmins adds an important, often ignored, dimension to the discussion. Only by understanding all the intricacies of the ecosystems can we learn to manage our forests in a sustainable fashion.

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Page Count

342

Publisher

UBC Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0774842857

ISBN 13

9780774842853

Forecasting Forest Futures

A Hybrid Modelling Approach to the Assessment of Sustainability of Forest Ecosystems and Their Values

By: Hamish Kimmins,Kim Scoullar,Brad Seely,Juan A. Blanco,Clive Welham

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Forecasting Forest Futures

A Hybrid Modelling Approach to the Assessment of Sustainability of Forest Ecosystems and Their Values

By: Hamish Kimmins,Kim Scoullar,Brad Seely,Juan A. Blanco,Clive Welham

Modelling is an important tool for understanding the complexity of forest ecosystems and the variety of interactions of ecosystem components, processes and values. This book describes the hybrid approach to modelling forest ecosystems and their possible response to natural and management-induced disturbance. The book describes the FORECAST family of ecosystem management models at three different spatial scales (tree, stand and landscape), and compares them with alternative models at these three spatial scales. The book will help forest managers to understand what to expect from ecosystem-based forest models; serve as a tool for use in teaching about sustainability, scenario analysis and value trade-offs in natural resources management; and assist policy makers, managers and researches working in assessment of sustainable forest management and ecosystem management. Several real-life examples of using the FORECAST family of models in forest management and other applications are presented from countries including Canada, China, Spain and the USA, to illustrate the concepts described in the text. The book also demonstrates how these models can be extended for scenario and value trade-off analysis through visualization and educational or management games.

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