Using a Fuzzy View of Old-Growth Longleaf Pine to Derive Silvicultural Clarity with Restoration

Abstract

The USDA Forest Service (Forest Service)’s historical documents collection at the National Archives includes many high-quality digital public domain photographs of foresters, stand conditions, and forest management practices, as well as a number of other subjects. These images offer researchers and managers numerous opportunities to study the American past and thus better address contemporary forest and forestry issues. To demonstrate this, the following pictures of historical longleaf pine ( Pinus palustris ) woodlands provide a reconsideration of the concept of old-growth forests and desired attributes from them can be encouraged in second growth. In this example, these images illustrate how a thorny challenge for many forest managers—the designation of stands as old growth—can be approached using a nontraditional yet well-defined “fuzzy set” mathematical theory (see also Bragg 2022).