Mesophication

Abstract:

         Humans have managed landscapes for specific purposes for millennia affecting, in the case of U.S. forests, their structure and composition. Due to the growing and rapidly accelerating impacts of climate change, western forests are becoming more prone to mortality through drought and fire, while eastern forest are becoming increasingly moist and dense. In the East, large projects of forest management, including harvesting, herbicide applications, and fire, are now aimed at maintaining a forest composition that is increasingly at odds with the warmer and more humid climate (Nowacki et al., 2008). Often this happens under the argument of reducing forest fire risk or increasing resilience, both ambiguous concepts (Newton, 2016) that have been introduced into policy often with the pretext of promoting pro-timber management.  This paper evaluates whether the natural progression towards mesophication of eastern forests should be impeded through forest management or if we should embrace it through proforestation (Moomaw et al., 2019). We look first at the impacts of climate change on forests, then at the characteristics and of the mesophytic forest and assess ecosystem services provided. Following, we review past and current forest management strategies to evaluate if these are meeting today’s needs of the climate and biodiversity crises.