FOREWORDThe Pinyon and Juniper Woodland Formation occurs over large acreages from Mexico to Canada and from California to Texas. The vegetation type is poorly understood, inadequately defined, and often misused. Significant management problems are identifying and classifying woodland sites, understanding woodland ecology, and proper management for sustained resource productivity. Land managers and scientists alike recognized the need to improve our understanding of woodlands and their management.An interagency steering committee was formed to develop a state-of-the-art management guide for woodlands. The approach selected was to hold a West-wide pinyon and juniper conference to gather the required information, develop a management guide from the conference papers, and hold field workshops utilizing the management guide. To that end, this conference proceedings brings together current research and management perspectives on pinyon and juniper woodlands. Session topics were selected by the steering committee to provide the required scientific and management base for practical and ecologically sound management guidelines. Session chairmen selected by the committee solicited the speakers for their own sessions as they saw fit. The success of the conference was largely due to the efforts of the session chairmen and their invited speakers.This proceedings provides information on woodland paleobotany, inventory and classification, synecology, silvics and silviculture, fire response, economics, plant-water relations, woodland conversion, range management, wildlife, woodland hydrology, and nutrient cycling. Paleobotany papers provide us with a perspective of where we are now in relation to the previous natural expansion, contraction, and movement of the Pinyon and Juniper Woodland Formation independent of human influence. Several general session papers allow us to evaluate the current human role in the woodland ecosystem. Inventory and classification provide a reference point to evaluate the current extent of the resource and its varying productivity potentials. Papers on synecology, fire response, and silvics provide insight into woodland successional processes and stand development, Woodland conversion, wildlife, range management, silviculture, and economic papers evaluate management alternatives and the required inputs for utilizing and maintaining wood and forage resources. The nutrient cycling papers define biotic and abiotic nutrient pools and the cycling processes in natural and disturbed systems. Woodland hydrology and plant-water relation papers discuss hydrologic models, water harvesting, the erosion process, and water use by trees and competing species.Much information was provided by the conference. Difficult questions were asked by Native Americans about current overuse of woodland resources. Our own watchdog scientists asked us to be careful to separate fact from fable in the scientific literature.A well-deserved thank you is extended to the interagency steering committee:
