Forest management is a branch of forestry concerned with overall administrative, legal, economic, and social aspects, as well as scientific and technical aspects, such as silviculture, protection, and forest regulation. This includes management for timber, aesthetics, recreation, urban values, water, wildlife, inland and nearshore fisheries, wood products, plant genetic resources, and other forest resource values. Management objectives can be for conservation, utilisation, or a mixture of the two. Techniques include timber extraction, planting and replanting of different species, building and maintenance of roads and pathways through forests, and preventing fire.
Deforestation and increased road-building in the Amazon Rainforest are a significant concern because of increased human encroachment upon wild areas, increased resource extraction and further threats to biodiversity.
Logs from a community forest in Oaxaca, Mexico
Sustainable forest management balances local socioeconomic, cultural, and ecological needs and constraints.
Wildfire burning in the Kaibab National Forest, Arizona, United States, in 2020. The Mangum Fire burned more than 70,000 acres (280 km2) of forest.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and guide to forestry:
Two USFS foresters discussing firefighting tactics.
A controlled burn at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southern Georgia.
Natural regeneration of Acer platanoides in northern France, surrounded by woody and herbaceous competition.
Clearcuts in the foreground and background at Rattlesnake Mountain, Montana.
