The integration of planted and natural forests in a regional landscape

The 10,700 km² region of northwestern Oregon, USA, is dominated by mountainous forested landscapes fringed by agricultural lands and rapidly expanding urban areas. The Douglas-fir/western-hemlock trees, admixed with other species, in the mild, moist regional climate with rich soils are among the most highly productive of temperate forests. Timber harvest has been the dominant land use for much of this century. Many current forest stands are planted, and have the potentials to be managed and shaped for a variety of traditional and evolving forestry objectives. The ages, resilience and productivity of these forests and mosaics of land ownerships permit a variety of future scenarios of forested landscapes, constrained largely by capacities of social organizations to plan and execute management for desired future conditions. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.