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Every person who is a forestry student or enthusiast has come across the term silviculture. But, for some, defining silviculture has been challenging as it is confusing to separate it from forestry and silvics. We hope that this article will help in clearing that out.

Forestry is the study and management of forests. Good forestry programs make it possible for humans to get some economic value from forests without destroying the forests or trees. This way of using forests is referred to as sustainable forestry. In sustainable forestry, the effort is put to ensure that all the resources that are taken from the forest are replaced. Only old trees may be cut down allowing younger trees to grow and ensure continuity. Trees are also planted to replace the ones cut down.

Silviculture

Silviculture is the agriculture of trees, i.e., how to grow them, how to maximize growth and return, and how to control tree species compositions to meet landowner purpose for the trees.

The purpose can include anything from firewood, timber, paper, income, wildlife habitat, water quality, recreation, or any other values a forest is capable of providing. In other words, managing trees for timber is different from managing trees for firewood or conservation!

Most consistent definition in forestry textbooks is as follows:

Silviculture is the art and science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, and quality of forest vegetation for the full range of forest resource objective

In simpler terms, to define silviculture, you need to understand that it involves manipulating a forest for specific human needs. However, foresters need to ensure that their management is ecologically sound, is within all the economic constraints and is acceptable by society. In a way, silviculture and sustainable forestry are similar to the concept of sustainable development. 

A more complex definition of silviculture includes the reference to the Latin word, Silvics. Silvics refer to the ‘life history, growth, behavior and ecology of a tree species’. Ergo, silviculture would imply the application of silvics to the management of a tree.

By now, you might be having an idea as to why we call ourselves Silvica.

Poor silvicultural decisions often arise when foresters fail to consider at least one of the three aspects of silvicultural decision making. Some examples of poor silvicultural decisions include:

• Litter raking was a common practice in forestry management in Europe until the early 20^th At this point, it was realized that litter raking was removing necessary nutrients in the soil. In this case, the ecological aspect was ignored.
• In dryland Kenya, a woody species, Prosopis julifola was introduced to increase the woodland cover. However, the foresters/silviculturists in the project failed to consider the societal and ecological impacts. The species dominated other indigenous species that had traditional value to the community.

A key point in the concept of defining silviculture is that forests could be managed for various goals including:

• Timber production: probably the most common application of silviculture
• Wildlife habitats: some species need forests for survival
• Protect water quality: Forests are known water towers
• Restore ecosystem function: For example, reafforestation in Mau forest, Kenya.
• Preserve natural ecosystems and wilderness: Common in national parks and reserves

Silvicultural systems are added to an individual stand to achieve a specific management objective. While it is possible to have more than one management objective on a stand, it would be impossible to optimize management for all. After all, some of the management objectives are inherently conflicting. Preservation conflicts with timber production. Landowners guide the forester in choosing the appropriate treatments

Our operational definition view silviculture as being synonymous with forestry. However, in the real sense of the word, silviculture is a subset of forestry.