forestry

In Scandinavia, where atmospheric humidity is generally low, logs are stacked for seasoning in the open air during the summer. Even during the winter, stacks of logs may simply be covered over with a plastic sheet to keep off the snow, leaving the ends open to the weather.

Photograph of a forest area after clear-cutting. Once trees have been removed over a large area like this, seedlings have a better chance to grow, because they receive more sunlight and rain. While clear-cutting leaves ugly, barren-looking areas in a forest, it is necessary for the future development of woodland.

A log boom comprises a number of large logs set across a waterway so that newly-cut timber floated downstream is caught and held for later retrieval. Ideally, the waterway for this purpose should be a large, but comparatively slow-flowing, river.

Science of forest management. Recommended forestry practice aims at multipurpose crops, allowing the preservation of varied plant and animal species as well as human uses (lumbering, recreation). Forestry has often been confined to the planting of a single species, such as a rapid-growing conifer providing softwood for paper pulp and construction timber, for which world demand is greatest. In tropical countries, logging contributes to the destruction of rainforests, causing global environmental problems. Small unplanned forests are woodland.

The earliest planned forest dates from 1368 at Nuremberg, Germany; in Britain, planning of forests began in the 16th century. In the UK, Japan, and other countries, forestry practices have been criticized for concentration on softwood conifers to the neglect of native hardwoods.