Reflections on forest management: Can fish and fiber coexist?

Unravelling the relationships between forestry practices, watershed processes, and the subsequent impacts on aquatic biota is no small undertaking. This book, Reflections of Forest Management: Can Fish and Fiber Coexist?, is the product of a culmination of knowledge accrued from two American Fisheries Society symposia. The chapters, grounded in a robust collection of well-referenced Western science works, use case studies, models, figures, and food webs to illustrate the intricate interactions between forest management practices and the surrounding ecosystems. These relationships are explored across varying levels of ecological complexity, from broad landscape or watershed dynamics to reach-level processes and nutrient pathways. Moreover, past and present forestry practices are detailed and evaluated alongside recommendations for future management priorities. There are brief nods to Canadian studies and forest policy, but the book’s primary focus is within the United States. The book opens by introducing a comprehensive background on how settler forest use and legislation in the United States have evolved through time. Notably, there is a significant lack of consideration for Indigenous practices relating to forest stewardship, both past and in moving forward. Key regulatory and scientific milestones are identified alongside discussions regarding the tensions between timber production and watershed conservation. The riparian area plays a critical role in modulating the relationship between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The book provides a particularly useful examination of the functional importance of riparian areas, highlighting its role in shaping channel morphology, regulating organic and inorganic inputs into streams (e.g., large woody debris, leaf litter, sediment, nutrients), and maintaining microclimates and habitat complexity for fish and invertebrates. Sensitive exchanges that occur in riparian ecosystems are known to be significantly modified by forestry. The mechanisms through which this occurs are explained in the book, detailing how riparian and hydrological functions are disrupted and altered during harvest, transport of harvested materials, and during regeneration of the forest postharvest. This background leads into the concept of best management practices (BMPs) and their importance for maintaining the integrity of riparian areas and watersheds. While BMPs are essential for reducing the risks of forestry on fish habitats, the authors argue that their implementation has been inconsistent. This is highlighted through numerous case studies that illustrate regional differences in application of BMPs alongside their limitations. A key question that emerges from the text is how the utility and effectiveness of BMPs should be evaluated. The text also addresses some of the established mechanisms through which shifts in forestry management have imposed indirect effects on aquatic habitats. Detailed explanations of the timescales and pathways through which forestry impacts food webs and physical processes (e.g., carbon flow, stream temperature, sedimentation) are provided. Case studies and examples of how these processes affect various fish species at different life stages are presented, but generalizable conclusions on the overall population-level consequences were not developed. Addressing the question of coexistence between forestry and fish requires complex analyses of population productivity and resilience in the context of forest harvest and recovery and will be essential for inferring the degree to which forestry affects the health and status of fish populations. The authors conclude with the overarching consensus on the need for holistic and adaptive management approaches. They contemplate the nonstatic nature of these forested systems, requiring flexible strategies for climate change, heterogeneous systems, and evolving concerns over human water and fiber demands. The authors propose the concept of “beyond BMPs” as a possible solution, which can vary widely in scope, to encompass context-specific aims. Generally, beyond BMPs recognize the broader maintenance and restoration needs of complex forest–aquatic ecosystems and their services. Furthermore, the authors make a valuable statement about the need for management to evolve alongside knowledge regarding topics like at-risk species, biodiversity, and physical and chemical stressors. Overall, this book is a valuable foundational source for understanding how forest management has influenced intra-watershed relationships and processes to date, and its many strategic citations allow the reader to dig deeper where desired. This book would be beneficial to those who are often in or adjacent to forests, including foresters, ecologists, consultants, restoration technicians, anglers, and recreators.