New forestry and the debate

The debate about new forestry is not only polarizing our profession, but eroding the public's confidence in our profession as well. The polarization occurs in part from failure to understand what new forestry is and how it fits in with the changing values of our society, and in part from the manner in which foresters debate.This debate is reducing the public's confidence, which is already low, because it appears that a significant segment of our profession is unwilling to seriously consider the new approaches wanted by society. Debating is not the culprit, but rather, how foresters are doing it! The tendency toward confrontation and either-or solutions is destructive and must stop.