This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

• demonstrate awareness of the processes involved in forest resource management
• demonstrate understanding of integrated resource management
• define silviculture
• describe silvicultural systems
• demonstrate awareness of a variety of perspectives on forest health

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• Ask the class to brainstorm a list of users of British Columbia's forests and ask the questions: Which forest resources do they use? How do each of these uses affect the forest ecosystem? How does one activity affect others (compatible resource management)?
• Ask students to design a procedure that describes the steps in planting a vegetable garden (including preparation, growing, harvesting). Compare this procedure with that of a forest rotation.
• Have students work in pairs to research and report on silvicultural systems used in British Columbia's forests. Ask each to focus on a particular system's purpose, variations, and integrated resource management considerations.
• Challenge students to develop plans for managing a tract of land. The plans should address a variety of perspectives, be sustainable, and be based on sound ecological principles. Students should also consider the recreational potential and economic implications of their plans.
• Ask students to hypothesize about how technology and management activities that affect timber resources (e.g., thinning, spacing) also affect other resources in the forest. Provide opportunities for students to conduct experiments or research to test their hypotheses.
• Develop a class definition of healthy forest. Invite an expert to discuss issues associated with forest health. Students' questions should focus on methods that foresters use to control forest health (e.g., using pesticides, herbicides; fire control; not interfering) and the positive and negative effects of these interventions. As an extension, have students research and debate one aspect of forest health management. (e.g., "Pesticide and herbicide use should be banned in British Columbia's forests.")

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

• When students defend their management plans, note the extent to which they:
  • show awareness of the need for an integrated approach (taking sustainability and economic, recreational, and ecological values into consideration)
  • provide coherent support for their decisions
• Have students explain how tree growth and survival are affected by forest management practices and techniques. Look for evidence that students:
  • are aware of a variety of perspectives on healthy forests
  • can identify factors influencing tree growth and survival (e.g., water, soil, elevation, lighting, temperature)
  • are aware of the technology used in silviculture and forest management
• Provide small groups of students with forest management case studies to analyse. Look for evidence that students are able to:
  • identify the basic problems outlined in the case studies
  • recognize the perspectives of different groups regarding the best management plan
  • generate lists of possible solutions to problems
  • select and defend solutions from an integrated resource perspective
• Ask students to create posters, dioramas, or multimedia presentations of a forest-use plan for a selected area. Use student displays as a basis for self- and peer assessment. Assist students in developing assessment criteria by asking questions. (e.g., What makes a display effective? Which factors should be considered when determining the management plan of an area?)

• Balancing Act: Environmental Issues in Forestry
• Forestopia: A Practical Guide to the New Forest Economy
• Pacific Spirit: The Forest Reborn
• Regenerating British Columbia's Forests
• Seeing the Forest Among the Trees
• Three Men and a Forester
• Touch Wood: B.C. Forests at the Crossroads
• Wildwood: A Forest for the Future, Second Edition

• The Boreal Forest I
• The Boreal Forest II
• Forests for the Future
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• Juvenile Spacing in B.C.
• More Than Trees
• Reforestation in British Columbia - A Growing Success
• Stepping Lightly
• Thinking Like a Forest: A Case for Sustainable Selective Forestry

• CORE: The Electronic Library, 1995

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