In the 12th article in the Wilding for Conservation series, Norman Dandy discusses the opportunity for rewilding and forestry to coexist, all the while recognising the importance of both a wilder Britain and the need to increase productive forestry.
The deep roots of production forestry – its founding principles and objectives – are eloquently laid out in James C. Scott’s ‘parable’ of The State and Scientific Forestry (Scott 1998). He describes the emergence, in the late 18th century, of methods for surveying and measuring – ‘seeing’ – the existing forests of what is now Germany in ways conducive to their valuation and management by the state.