According to the USDA Forest Service, silviculture is the "art and science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests and woodlands to meet the diverse needs and values of landowners and society such as wildlife habitat, timber, water resources, restoration, and recreation on a sustainable basis. This is accomplished by applying different types of silvicultural treatments such as thinning, harvesting, planting, pruning, prescribed burning, and site preparation."1

This library allows forest managers from Michigan, Minnesota, Ontario, and Wisconsin to exchange silviculture prescriptions—documents that describe a planned series of treatments designed to change current stand structure and composition to one that meets management goals, normally considering ecological, economic, and societal objectives and constraints.1 The site also provides real case studies submitted by natural resource managers in the Great Lakes region.

The library was created in 2015 by the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Forest Resources Partnership, conceived with the idea that every silviculture treatment is an experiment, and that every forest manager is both a teacher and a learner. Too often, we fail to share the experience that we gain from our day-to-day work, limiting the value of what we have learned.

The library is designed to serve as one piece of the institutional memory of the Great Lakes forestry community. The library's managers welcome case study submissions from anyone with direct experience managing forest land in the Great Lakes region, and hope that users will review the cases already published, reach out to their authors, and add to the small but growing body of forestry knowledge.

The silviculture library is maintained by staff of the University of Minnesota's Sustainable Forests Education Cooperative, based at the Cloquet Forestry Center.

• 1. a. b. U.S. Forest Service: Silviculture, accessed 23 August 2019.