18 VIRGINIA FORESTS Young forests grow quickly—so quickly that you can almost watch them grow. As forests age and reach sawtimber size, it often becomes difficult to observe growth. You know it must be growing because all plants must grow to live, but its growth is imperceivable. Most hardwood forests have grown like this for decades, leading us to believe that this is the way it’s always been. This precedent has slowly developed over the last few decades due to a stagnation of hardwood forest management at a statewide scale, wherein most forests are passively managed or not managed at all. This decline in management has resulted in a decline in the quality of Virginia’s hardwood forests and the benefits they provide. At the Virginia Dept. of Forestry (DOF), we’re working to reverse this decline by promoting proactive forest management that increases forest productivity and benefits for landowners and the Commonwealth as a whole. Hardwood forests are a crucial resource for Virginia’s landscape, wildlife and people, especially forest landowners. Hardwoods make up 80 percent of our forestland and are comprised of over 100 species. Countless wildlife species—both game and non-game—call hardwood forests home for part or all their lives. We love the beauty of our forests and often take for granted that we live in a forested landscape, with 66 percent of Virginia covered in forestland. You can see forestland in every county and even from most cities. You’re never more than a few minutes’ drive from a hardwood forest. Hardwood forests cover the headwaters of most watersheds and make up riparian buffers along waterways, cleaning the air we breathe and filtering the water we drink. Hardwood forests are also a considerable financial asset for landowners. They are an important source of occasional income for landowners who have the privilege and responsibility to conduct a harvest when the time is right. In fact, much of our hardwood forest is full of sawtimber-size trees. Today’s landowners are the beneficiaries of work done by past landowners to grow great forests that are ready to meet their desires for providing wildlife habitat, aesthetics, clean water, and income. In short, they’re ready for management. Forest management is the process of transforming a forest from its current condition to one that better meets the landowner’s goals. It’s usually a series of practices carried out in a strategic order with time in-between for the forest to respond by growing or regenerating. Hardwood forests
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