To maintain the ecosystem resilience to large-scale disturbances in managed forests, it is essential to adhere to the principles of close-to-nature silviculture, adapt practices to the traits of natural forest types, and utilize natural processes, including natural regeneration. This study examines the natural regeneration patterns in silver fir (Abies alba Mill.)-dominated forests, analyzing how the stand structure—tree size diversity, species composition, and stand density—affects the regeneration. We analyze the data from four sites in Poland, Germany, and Italy, employing generalized linear and zero-inflated models to evaluate the impact of the management strategies (even- vs. uneven-aged) and forester-controlled stand characteristics (structural diversity, broadleaf species admixture, and stand density) on the probability of regeneration, its density, and the developmental stages (seedling, small sapling, and tall sapling) across a climatic gradient. Our results indicate a significantly higher probability of regeneration in uneven-aged stands, particularly in areas with lower temperatures and lower overall regeneration density. The tree size diversity in the uneven-aged stands favors advancement from juveniles to more developed stages (seedling to sapling) in places with higher aridity. A denser stand layer (higher stand total basal area) leads to a lower density of natural regeneration for all the present species, except silver fir if considered separately, signifying that, by regulating the stand growing stock, we can selectively promote silver fir. A higher admixture of broadleaf species generally decreases the regeneration density across all the species, except in a water-rich site in the Bavarian Alps, where it had a strong positive impact. These findings underscore the complex interactions of forest ecosystems and provide a better understanding required for promoting silver fir regeneration, which is essential for a close-to-nature silviculture under climate change.

Using a metaphor based on a historical debate between socialist and free-market economists, Salliou and Stritih (Environ. Res. Lett. 18 151001) advocate for decentralizing environmental management to harness emergent complexity and promote ecosystem health. Concerningly, however, their account seems to leave little room for top-down processes like government-led sustainability programs or centrally-planned conservation initiatives, the cornerstone of the post-2020 biodiversity framework. While we appreciate their call for humbleness, we offer a few words in defense of planning. Drawing on evidence from ecology, economics, and systems theory, we argue that (1) more complexity is not always better; (2) even if it were, mimicking minimally-regulated markets is probably not the best way to get it; and (3) sophisticated decision support tools can support humble planning under uncertainty. We sketch a re-interpretation of the socialist calculation debate that highlights the role of synthesis and theoretical pluralism. Rather than abandoning big-picture thinking, scientists must continue the difficult work of strengthening connections between and across multiple social, ecological, and policy scales.

Effective discount rates for long-horizon environmental problems have been revised steadily downward, and standard frameworks can yield negative rates under sufficiently uncertain growth, expected contraction, or—for carbon benefits—when real price growth outpaces discounting. Yet classical asset-replacement models exclude such rates: under negative discounting, any fixed receipt becomes arbitrarily valuable through delay, apparently implying that a renewable resource should never be harvested. We revisit one of the oldest asset-replacement problems in economics—optimal forest rotation—without the sign restriction on the discount rate, showing that stationary Faustmann programs remain rankable even when every present value diverges. The cumulative discounted benefit factors into a horizon term, which carries the divergence, and a finite rotation statistic that solely determines the ranking at common renewal dates. Its annuity gives a welfare-consistent ranking at all horizons and reproduces each program’s cumulative present value at every harvest, for any nonzero rate. The land expectation value, soil rent, and previous negative-rate objectives are affine transformations of this index and share the classical first-order condition. Consistent with observed stand dynamics, eventually declining asset value is sufficient for a finite global optimum. As the discount rate falls through zero, that optimum surpasses the rotation maximizing average net revenue and extends toward the age of maximum value. Negative discounting thus implicates late-stage growth poorly described by timber-oriented models, shifting the analytical burden to ecology, but the prototypical asset-replacement model remains intact.

Competition for limited resources is a key driver of forest structure and dynamics. While growth dominance and tree size inequality are widely used to describe competitive interactions, their relationship remains poorly understood in managed forests. This study examines the links between growth dominance, tree size inequality, stocking density, and climatic conditions in silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) dominated stands. Using data from circular 109 plots established across four sites in Germany, Italy, and Poland, and incre­ment cores from 386 silver fir and 77 European beech trees, we fitted generalized additive models (GAM) to reconstruct individual tree growth and a piecewise structural equation model (SEM) to disentangle the direct and indirect effects of stand structure and climate aridity on growth dominance. The fitted GAMs showed moderate to high explanatory power (adjusted R² = 0.48–0.77). The SEM ex­plained a substantial proportion of variance in growth dominance (marginal R² = 0.57). Growth dominance increased strongly with tree size inequality (standardized estimate = 0.635), while climate aridity reduced it directly (–0.321) and indirectly through negative effects on tree size inequality (–0.324) and stocking density (–0.404). The total effect of climate aridity on growth dominance was substantial (–0.472). These findings demonstrate that growth dominance is an emergent property shaped by resource competi­tion, disturbance, and management legacies. Recognizing this is crucial for forest science and management, as it helps disentangle competition modes and highlights the need to integrate stand structure and com­petitive dynamics into silvicultural planning to sustain the stability and productivity of silver fir dominated stands.

One adaptive silvicultural strategy to address the increasing frequency and severity of climate extremes is the promotion of genetic material best suited to a changing environment. Using a long-term provenance trial established in 1966 in central Poland, we evaluated how climate humidity at the parental site (provenance origin) influences individual-tree growth–drought resilience trade-offs in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). Stem discs from 240 trees representing 16 provenances were initially assessed, of which 202 trees were retained following cross-dating and quality control. Drought responses were quantified using complementary growth resilience indices for major drought events identified using the Standardized Precipitation–Evapotranspiration Index. Mixed-effects models followed by Type III Wald chi-square tests and Sidák-adjusted pairwise comparisons revealed significant provenance-level differences in drought responses. Structural equation modeling showed that parental-site climate directly and indirectly affected drought resistance through its influence on relative tree size. Trees from provenances originating in more water-rich environments tended to be smaller but exhibited higher resistance, indicating a potential trade-off between growth and drought tolerance. Relative tree size was also negatively associated with resilience, whereas recovery and relative resilience were not significantly associated with provenance climate or relative tree size. These findings indicate that provenance climate is associated with drought resistance in Scots pine, with tree size emerging as an important mediator of this relationship.