Heather Eggleston
DCNR: Bureau of Forestry Colloquium Presentation
The Bureau of Forestry plays in integral part of maintaining PennsylvaniaÆs
commonwealth by caring for and monitoring its state forestland. The Bureau
of Forestry is a branch of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
(DCNR) and has been in existence since the early 20th century. The goal of
the bureau is to ensure the long-term health, viability, and productivity of the
CommonwealthÆs forests and to conserve native wild plant life. In order
to accomplish this goal, employees of the Bureau of Forestry strive to ensure
ecosystem management, pure water, low density recreation, habitats for plants
and animals, protection from damage and destruction by fires, insects, and
diseases, and yields of quality timber.
A form of management strategy is known as siliviculture. Specifically
siliviculture is designed to improve species composition of forest stands,
enhance biodiversity, reduce losses due to fire, insects, and disease, achieve
consistent harvests, promote optimum growth of high quality trees of desirable
commercial species, and promote superior genetic strains of timber.
The first part of enacting the desired strategy for a particular stand is to
assess its characteristics before applying the appropriate treatment of either a
clear cut (over story removal), selection cut, or shelterwood cut. The
assessment takes many different factors into consideration, including: height of
trees, crown of tree, DBH, type of tree (saw or pulp), under story regeneration,
and impacts of wildlife.
The Bureau of Forestry also must deal with other aspects of management,
specifically wildlife. White tail deer have become a significant part of
management plans throughout the state of Pennsylvania. Due the high
population of deer, over browsing has occurred in many forests and a result is a
lack of under story to replace the mature trees. To assist in management
of the deer population artificial forests are created by the construction of
deer exclosure fences. These are made of both wire mesh and electric
fences. Both types have their advantages and disadvantages.
The use of herbicide is also common practice to remove competing vegetation
surrounding desirable species. Typical undesirable species in PA are striped
maple, hyscented ferns, and beech brush. The chemicals used vary depending
on the situation and stand in question. Oust and accord are the two
herbicides used to treat the undesirable vegetation.
As an intern of the Bureau, my role has been slightly varied. I have helped in
the assessment of timber sales, but mostly IÆve worked with GPS and mapping of
state forest corners. The equipment I use is a Covalese Micro Technology
GPS. It allows for points to be taken from virtually anywhere with the use
of satellites circling the globe. The data I collect can be corrected and
used to specifically map the corners and boundary lines of the Tiadaugton State
Forest.