Could some of you explain what these words mean when talking about Sustainability ?

[Bumpus]

.
Could some of you explain what these word mean in reference to
Sustainable Farming, Forestry and Living

restorative forestry

community stability

implement

practitioners

procurer

healing

taking the worst first
.

[Gabe Ayers]

Bumpus,

I’ll take a crack at these definitions, anyone is welcome to jump in or compare what is being said here to what a dictionary says….or what they think.

restorative forestry – since I am pretty much the primary user of this phrase, not to say I coined it or was the first one to use it. I heard it first from a fellow member of the Forest Stewards Guild years ago as a definition of what we were doing and just calling it improvement harvesting at the time. But I am a consistent frequent user of the phrase and we define it as:

A management method that returns to forest to as much like a virgin forest from one single entry or harvesting activity, as possible

community stability –

a community that is stable or doesn’t change much or beyond normal natural
evolution or change or adaptation

implement – to start or apply something, or a tool used to do a job with, like a plow is a tillage implement.

practitioners – people that do things, actually physically practice a skill, task or technique, but could be a doctor, lawyer or anyone doing something

procurer – in forestry it refers to who goes and gets timber or buys timber or finds timber through some form or another, i.e. procurement forester, the one that finds or accesses timber or forestland

healing – well, when you knock the bark off your paw and it gets better -that’s healing….to make something better that was previously ill or sick or not doing well….

taking the worst first – I did coin this phrase and am the first one I ever heard use it. I made it up because conventional foresters would always say no horse logger was any good because they were all high graders, taking the best and leaving the rest. So since this is not what we do, we actually low grade and take the worst individual trees first and after a few harvest rotations the forest is composed of high quality trees and several age ranges. We have this system we developed based upon visible physical indicators of decline or low performance in producing high quality valuable wood. It is called “Nature’s Tree Marking Paint”. The system as adapted to our region has 18 indicators in three categories – 1.) damaged 2.) diseased 3.) inferior. When three indicators occur on a single tree specimen it is ripe for harvest. All the details of this system used by “Biological Woodsmen” are on our web site, (address below).

Biological Woodsman – Title of certification awarded by the board of directors of Healing Harvest Forest Foundation – awarded to people that use the above systems, information, animal power and considerable other skills, to practice restorative forestry. It is not gender specific, there are women that hold the title also.

I know you didn’t ask for that last one, but figured you’d want to know how we came up with it. The point is we are not just “horse loggers” and there are only a few with this certificate. It is awarded by merit – earned as a proven practitioner of restorative forestry.

It was many years ago since you visited our place and things keep growing and changing, so come again sometime if you want to walk some of the woods where this method is practiced.

I think it is important to define ones self, rather than be reduced or marginalized or made less by someone else’s definition. Since there is no clear language in the conventional forestry industry that defines what we do, then we use our own words when we can. Smart landowners – that aren’t desperate for money understand it very well. That is the kind we like and intend to work with.

Regards,

[Author]

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