Forests have been my interest for a long time, starting from a love of the outdoors, growing with curiosity about woodland communities and continuing with employment in the forest industry. Yet as a treeplanter, woodsworker, naturalist and woodlot owner, I began to feel something was wrong. The clearcut-replant-herbicide cycle was not leading to healthy forests. Books and magazine articles started appearing on ecological methods of forestry. Foresters, especially those trained in Europe and working in Canada, were voicing concerns over industrial-style management. I learned more about Dr. Stephen Manley's brief attempt to recreate the Acadian forest on this Island and had several opportunities to hear him speak and discuss his work. Equally important, I began writing to Dr. Alexander Jablanczy, a forest engineer with a doctorate of forestry and Ph.D. in forest ecology. These people, and others working for better forests in Canada and the United States, made it clear that forests were communities of living things, each playing an important role.

My association with the Natural History Society of Prince Edward Island, as past-editor of the Island Naturalist and organizer of the Montague-area Christmas Bird Count, heightened my interest in forest birds. In doing research on songbird decline, I found that experts were laying the blame on forest practices in North and South America.

This booklet provides information on how to restore healthy, productive forest communities and avoid potentially harmful practices. Information has been gleaned from writings by qualified foresters, research scientists, naturalists and woodlot owners. Until government and industry devote more resources to ecological forestry, most research will continue to be done on our own woodlots. Private landowners control 93% of forests in this province and our tax dollars fund government programs. It is up to individual woodlot owners to manage their woodlots well.

Woodlot owners have expertise and practical knowledge too often overlooked. It is for them this booklet was written, in hopes that we can make our forests a better place for all wildlife, including humans.

Research and writing: Gary Schneider
Editorial committee: Geoff Hogan, Daniel Schulman and Diane Griffin
Design and production: Gary Schneider
Illustrations: Kate Poole
Web Development: Chris Martin

An Environment Week 1991 project of the Prince Edward Island Eco-Net de l'Ile-du-Prince Edouard
126 Richmond St.
Charlottetown, PE C1A 1H9
Tel: (902) 566-4170 Fax: (902) 566-4037

Thanks to Environment Canada for funding this project.

We offer a number of workshops and guided tours at the Macphail Woods and it is an opportunity to learn more about ecological forestry on Prince Edward Island. Contact us or see the Events Calendar for more information.

Special thanks to: Geoff, Daniel and Diane for their support and expertise; Environment Canada; the Environmental Coalition's Environmental Education Project; all those who read various drafts of the booklet and made comments; Bob Bancroft of the N.S. Department of Lands and Forests for permission to reprint nest box pages from Wildlife and Forestry; and everyone who has shared their love and knowledge of forests with me.