Forest-ungulate interactions: monitoring, modeling and management

Abstract

An international conference on “Forest Dynamics and Ungulate Herbivory” was held from 3–6 October 2001 in Davos, Switzerland. Two Special Issues of peer-reviewed scientific journals arose from this event. Here, we provide an overview of the papers contained in this Special Issue of Journal for Nature Conservation, which focus on the management of forests and forest-dwelling ungulates, including the methodologies and tools required for implementing successful management strategies. From the papers compiled in this Special Issue as well as the additional papers that were presented at the Davos Conference, the following conclusions emerge: (1) Many interacting factors operate in forest-ungulate systems, and they need to be managed simultaneously. Fixation on a single management factor is often doomed to failure. (2) Forest-ungulate systems are characterised by processes that operate over multiple scales in time and space, from foraging at the leaf level to interactions between ungulate population dynamics and landscape-scale natural disturbances. Therefore, multiple spatial and temporal scales must be considered for successfully managing forest-ungulate systems. (3) Forest dynamics operate over long time scales. Therefore, long-term thinking, long-term research, and long-term management strategies are required. (4) Rigorous programs are required to monitor and measure the interactions in forest-ungulate systems. Because of the many interacting factors and the multiple scales that are involved, we need to be creative in these efforts, including experimental approaches. (5) Because of the many complexities that are characteristic of forest-ungulate systems, management protocols will need to be adaptive, flexible and experimental if they are to be successful. It is imperative that scientists and managers interact closely for developing sustainable management practices. (6) Simulation modeling has an important role for supporting management efforts. The primary value of simulation models in the context of Decision Support Systems may well lie in the modeling process itself, specifically in the formalisation of expert knowledge and in the rigorous exploration of the consequences of scientific hypotheses about driving factors, interactions and feedbacks in forest-ungulate systems. (7) There is growing evidence that sweeping generalisations about the importance of single factors, for any given aspect of ungulate-forest interactions, are not likely to be broadly generalised. No single silvicultural system or management practice presents a “silver bullet” for resolving conflicts between ungulate populations and forest regeneration. A larger collection of conference papers, which focus on expressing the state of the art concerning the science of ungulate-vegetation interactions, can be found in a Special Issue of the journal Forest Ecology and Management.