The driving purpose of our report is to provide realistic silvicultural recommendations for foresters and landowners on how to effectively and sustainably manage northeastern forests for timber while also protecting native biodiversity. As cultural land use practices have degraded northeastern forests over the last 400 years, threatening biodiversity, the silvicultural methods we propose are designed to help rehabilitate present-day forests by reintroducing elements that were important to presettlement forest dynamics. To accomplish this goal, the following three objectives must be met:

Objective 1: Describe as accurately as possible the species composition, structure, and dynamics of presettlement northeastern forests. Included in this synthesis is a comprehensive understanding of the types of natural disturbances that occurred in these forests and how they affected and controlled presettlement forest dynamics, including native biodiversity.

Objective 2: Describe the major land uses that impacted northeastern forests in the last four centuries since European colonization. We develop an understanding of their historical effects on forest composition and biodiversity, and how the legacies of these land uses continue to influence forest dynamics and biodiversity today. We assess how current species composition, ecological processes, and disturbance regimes are different from their presettlement counterparts.

Objective 3: Review the current knowledge about silvicultural and management options, including methodology and outcomes, focusing on how specific techniques impact forest regeneration and biodiversity. We propose that management techniques that follow natural models for forest disturbance may best sustain the diversity of plants and animals native to the northeast by reestablishing ecological processes that have been lost or modified since presettlement. Our recommendations should balance these goals while also being economically sound, providing sustainable yield, and recognizing current and historical cultural land use factors that affect their practicality.