316 THE ST UDY OF PLANT COMMUNITIES • Chapter XII 



Since man is becoming the dominant organism and also is 

 gifted with thought processes, his dominance should be such that 

 he turns natural laws to his advantage or, at least, does not permit 

 them to work against him. It is in this connection that applied 

 ecology becomes useful. The characteristics and distribution of 

 natural communities, the nature of the environment, and the inter- 

 relationships of organisms and environment are subject to natural 

 laws, which the ecologist seeks to recognize and verify. The more 

 completely the pattern of these interrelated processes is under- 

 stood, the greater the probability that man will remain a per- 

 manent dominant, assuming that he restricts his activities to the 

 limits of these laws. Only if biological laws are recognized in full 

 can we hope to rebuild the natural resources we have destroyed, 

 or even maintain those still available to us. 



If we knew the ecology of all natural vegetation and that of all 

 crop plants, strong recommendations for land use could be made 

 in terms of its greatest contribution to society. Not only could 

 agricultural, forestry, and grazing lands be positively recognized, 

 but the details of management for maximum continuous production 

 could be recommended with certainty. Quite obviously, ecologi- 

 cal knowledge has not accumulated to this extent. The ecology of 

 natural vegetation is still inadequately known, and the ecology of 

 cultivated plants has not been sufficiently studied. If the ecologist 

 is to contribute successfully to the direction of man's activities as 

 a dominant, there is still much that must be learned. On the other 

 hand, even though knowledge is incomplete, ecology has much 

 to contribute that has not been fully utilized in applied fields. 

 What is known should be applied when man destroys or modifies 

 natural communities. Much progress has been made in the use of 

 ecological principles in several fields, but their potential applica- 

 tion is still great. 



FORESTRY 



The early history of lumbering in North America indicates, on 

 the part of lumbermen, a complete disregard for forests as a 

 natural resource and little concern for the future. Foresters have 

 long been conscious of this improdigal attitude although until re- 

 cently they were usually unable to change the lumberman's 

 methods or point of view. Through the years, forestry has be- 



