The management philosophy advocated by many public agencies today has become known as "ecosystem management." Under this philosophy, maintenance of ecosystem structure and functions becomes the primary goal, while production of commodities and services is viewed as a useful byproduct. However, any effort to assure sustainability and health of American forests can be expected to succeed only if private ownerships, which comprise the majority of forest land, are included. Following this reasoning, it becomes immediately obvious that for realistic application of ecological principles to forest management on private ownerships, the owners' goals and management objectives must be kept in the forefront. They cannot become secondary concerns. This publication is aimed at natural resource professionals who prepare forest management plans for private landowners. However, the ecological concepts presented apply to all ownerships. The goal of the publication is twofold: 1) to review some ecological principles that are reasonably well understood and that can be applied to forest management; and 2) to suggest a method for identifying a range of management alternatives by considering ecological principles, as well as landowners' goals, constraints and opportunities. It is our hope that heightened knowledge of forest resources and ecological forces at work, together with landowner involvement, will increase the success of forest-planning efforts.