A Review of the Biological, Social, and Regulatory Constraints to Intensive Plantation Culture

Abstract

Abstract Substantial progress continues to be made in a variety of biological fields toward increasing plantation productivity. Productivity in a wide variety of forest ecosystems is controlled by environmental variables, cultural treatments, the genotypes deployed, and the interactions thatmay exist among these various factors. Effective and efficient increases in productivity require a thorough understanding of these complex interactions. A thorough understanding of the biological limits to productivity and the development of effective genetic resources and cultural regimesto overcome some of these limitations is only one facet that forest managers must currently address. New management strategies for future plantations inherently carry new challenges and limitations that must prove to be substantially more profitable and ecologically sound than current technologies.To operate in the social context we currently face, industrial forest lands will continue to represent a range of management intensities with differing primary management objectives. On many of our most intensively managed forest lands, clonal plantation forestry is becoming the future. Thenext step in this progression may be the use of genetically modified trees. The form that intensive forest management will take in the future in the United States is subject to factors beyond the development of improved cultural regimes or new genotypes that may be deployed. Government restrictionsmay greatly impede or halt new technologies. Beyond controls imposed by formal regulations, negative public sentiment has been seen in the form of boycotts of retail markets thus pressuring the industry to use more costly management strategies. Research that is not directly related to stand productivity but rather possible impacts of increasing stand productivity to the environment and other ecological processes will draw even greater attention. South. J. Appl. For. 29(2):105–109.