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NED and SILVAH: A history of the coalition

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Forest management decision support software has been used for several decades. Many people have tried a variety of approaches, with varying degrees of success, to provide information that helps forest managers make decisions. This chapter documents some of the successes and failures of NED and SILVAH. In 1988 the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Northeastern Forest Experiment Station used its Genesis program to stimulate innovation. Under the leadership of H. Clay Smith, it convened the Stand Regeneration working group and, under the leadership of David Marquis, created the Stand Growth working group. Before that time, silvicultural research across the station had been scattered; each local researcher worked independently, which resulted in a variety of growth models and approaches to silvicultural analysis and prescription. The Genesis working groups used the SILVAH system of inventory, analysis, and prescription as a model to consolidate much of the silvicultural research that had been produced by scientists across the station’s territory (Benzie 1977a, 1977b; Dale and Hilt 1989; Frank and Bjorkbom 1973; Lancaster 1985; Lancaster and Leak 1978, Leak et al. 1969, 1987; Perala 1977; Philbrook et al. 1973; Roach 1977; Safford 1983; Stout and Nyland 1986; Stout et al. 1987). The idea was to develop a software package that would provide a universal framework for sharing silvicultural research results and proposing recommended actions. The first step was to develop a software package that consolidated several growth models that had been developed independently around the northeastern United States, including SILVAH (Marquis and Ernst 1992), NE-TWIGS (Teck and Hilt 1991), Fiber (Solomon et al. 1995), and Oaksim (Hilt 1985). This software package was called the Northeast Decision Model, or later NED.

Parent Publication

Citation

Twery, Mark J. 2019. NED and SILVAH: A history of the coalition. In: Stout, Susan L., ed. SILVAH: 50 years of science-management cooperation. Proceedings of the Allegheny Society of American Foresters training session; 2017 Sept. 20-22; Clarion, PA. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-186. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 98-105. https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-GTR-P-186-Paper9.
Citations
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/59012