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Silviculture questions

Started by nhy236, January 14, 2004, 03:30:05 PM

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nhy236

Hi everyone,

Im new to the forum but I have a few questions I hope you will  be able to help me with as part of a much bigger project im doing:

1) What do you understand by irregular silviculture?

2)Is there still a place for even-aged forests in world forestry?

Any suggestions to resources or direct answers would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

Andrew
 :P

Ron Wenrich

Welcome aboard.  I hope to learn what you folks in the UK are doing in forestry.

What do you mean by irregular forestry?  Is that an uneven-aged stand?  

An uneven-aged stand is a forest with 2 or more distinct age classes.  We get them when they do diameter limit cuts.  We also get them when they make small clearcuts  

A lot depends on the scope you are looking at.  The larger the forested area, the easier it is to get an uneven-aged forest.  

Uneven-aged forests can be OK, if managed correctly.  But, too often it gets to be a series of high grading.  I usually like to put a hole in the canopy to get small areas of reproduction started.

There is definetly a place for even-aged forests.  They're called plantations.  The more intensive the plantations, the less need to go into the natural stands.  You get more wood fiber using the even-aged regime.

I'm not sure I would like to see all the forests on an even-aged cycle.  It tends to lead to monocultures and often you lack the needed biodiversity that other types of management lend
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Ron Scott

Irregular silviculture as I know it would be a variation in age structure (usually uneven-aged or all-aged) or in spatial arrangement of trees.

Even-aged management (the trees are all the same age or have a very narrow range of ages, 10-20 years max.) has its place depending upon landowner objectives, economics, species, etc., but it should not be the only forest practice to always be applied.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods.

Forests should be managed for diversity and intergration of all resources.

 

  

~Ron

Texas Ranger

The Ron's' are correct.  And yes, there is room for evenaged management.  Plantations produce the bulk of wood in some areas, and take the pressure off old growth stands.  And there are some species that require open ground for regeneration, as a succession stage for forest development.  The unfortunate truth is that even aged management has a bad rap because of poor usage in some areas.  

Just as you liking to eat requires a large land investment in production, so does the use of wood products require that large land investment and maximum production.
The Ranger, home of Texas Forestry

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