Evaluation of residual stand damage following whole-tree partial cutting in northern forest types.

摘要

A market for low-quality wood chips for biomass boilers in recent years has evoked mixed reactions from both the public and the forestry community. The increased demand for rough, rotten, and cull trees for fuelwood presents opportunities to improve timber stand quality in the Northeast forest. In the past, only the best trees were harvested in the past leaving the poorer quality ones to develop into the next forest, a practice called high-grading. The new market for low-quality wood offers an opportunity to reverse the adverse impacts of high-grading. The present study was designed to quantify the amount of residual stand damage that occurs when whole-trees are harvested during thinning or partial cut operations, and to correlate the extend of damage with several important variables of silvicultural management. A total of 18 hardwood or mixed wood study sites were selected in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont that were harvested within the last five years using wheeled, drive-to-bunch harvesting machines.