Improving forest management by implementing best suitable timber harvesting methods

Concepts of near-natural forestry are in great demand these days. Most German forest administrations and private forest enterprises attach great importance to being as «near-natural» as possible. This should allow them to make the most of biological rationalisation. The concept of near-natural forestry is widely accepted, especially by conservationists. However, it is much too early to analyse how successful near-natural forestry has been to date, and therefore to decide whether an era of genuine near-natural forest management has really begun. Despite wide-spread recognition, near-natural forestry is jeopardised by mechanised timber harvesting, and particularly by the large-timber harvester. The risk is that machines, which are currently just one element of the timber harvest will gain in importance and gradually become the decisive element. The forest would then be forced to meet the needs of machinery, not the other way round. Forests would consequently become so inhospitable that they would bear no resemblance to the sylvan image conjured up by potential visitors. This could mean taking a huge step backwards: from a near-natural forest to a forest dominated by machinery. The model of multipurpose forest management would become less viable, and the forest would become divided into areas for production, and separate areas for recreation and ecology. The consequences of technical intervention need to be carefully considered, if near-natural forestry is not to become a thing of the past.

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Fifty years of partial harvesting in a mixed mesophytic forest: composition and productivity

Canadian Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1139/x03-262 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 34 (5) ◽

pp. 985-997 ◽

Cited By ~ 82

Author(s):

Thomas M Schuler

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Sugar Maple ◽

Acer Rubrum ◽

Timber Harvesting ◽

Red Oak ◽

Northern Red Oak ◽

Single Tree ◽

Periodic Growth ◽

Mesophytic Forest ◽

Single Tree Selection

Long-term silvicultural trials contribute to sustainable forest management by providing a better scientific understanding of how forest ecosystems respond to periodic timber harvesting. In this study, species composition, diversity, and net periodic growth of tree species in a mixed mesophytic forest in the central Appalachians were evaluated after about a half century of management. Three partial cutting practices on 18 research compartments and on 3 unmanaged reference compartments were evaluated (19512001) on 280 ha. Single-tree selection, diameter-limit harvesting, and timber harvesting in 0.162-ha patches were assessed on three northern red oak site index50 (SI) classes: 24, 21, and 18. ShannonWeiner's diversity index (H′) declined from the first (19511959) to last (19872001) measurements and was related to both SI (P = 0.004) and treatment (P = 0.009). Sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) and red maple (Acer rubrum L.) were the two most abundant species in recent years (19872001); in contrast, in initial inventories (19511959), northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.) and chestnut oak (Quercus prinus L.) were most abundant. Net periodic annual increment (PAI) of merchantable trees (DBH ≥12.7 cm) was related to both SI (P = 0.004) and treatment (P = 0.003). Mean PAI ranged from 4.6 m3·ha1·year1 for single-tree selection to 2.5 m3·ha1·year1 for unmanaged reference areas across all SI classes. The decline of oak species suggests that only intensive and specific forest management focused on maintaining oak species can obtain historical levels of diversity.

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Impacts of Alternative Harvesting and Natural Disturbance Scenarios on Forest Biomass in the Superior National Forest, USA

Forests ◽

10.3390/f9080491 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (8) ◽

pp. 491 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Matthew Russell ◽

Stephanie Patton ◽

David Wilson ◽

Grant Domke ◽

Katie Frerker

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Forest Biomass ◽

Natural Disturbance ◽

Timber Harvest ◽

Timber Harvesting ◽

Volume Control ◽

National Forest ◽

Total Biomass ◽

Natural Disturbances ◽

Project Area

The amount of biomass stored in forest ecosystems is a result of past natural disturbances, forest management activities, and current structure and composition such as age class distributions. Although natural disturbances are projected to increase in their frequency and severity on a global scale in the future, forest management and timber harvesting decisions continue to be made at local scales, e.g., the ownership or stand level. This study simulated potential changes in natural disturbance regimes and their interaction with timber harvest goals across the Superior National Forest (SNF) in northeastern Minnesota, USA. Forest biomass stocks and stock changes were simulated for 120 years under three natural disturbance and four harvest scenarios. A volume control approach was used to estimate biomass availability across the SNF and a smaller project area within the SNF (Jeanette Project Area; JPA). Results indicate that under current harvest rates and assuming disturbances were twice that of normal levels resulted in reductions of 2.62 to 10.38% of forest biomass across the four primary forest types in the SNF and JPA, respectively. Under this scenario, total biomass stocks remained consistent after 50 years at current and 50% disturbance rates, but biomass continued to decrease under a 200%-disturbance scenario through 120 years. In comparison, scenarios that assumed both harvest and disturbance were twice that of normal levels and resulted in reductions ranging from 14.18 to 29.85% of forest biomass. These results suggest that both natural disturbances and timber harvesting should be considered to understand their impacts to future forest structure and composition. The implications from simulations like these can provide managers with strategic approaches to determine the economic and ecological outcomes associated with timber harvesting and disturbances.

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Tendencias minimalistas en la gestión de los bosques tropicales mexicanos: motivaciones y experiencias

BOIS & FORETS DES TROPIQUES ◽

10.19182/bft2021.348.a31913 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 348 ◽

pp. 29-36

Author(s):

Martin Alfonso MENDOZA B. ◽

Angélica NAVARRO-MARTÍNEZ ◽

Carl W. MIZE ◽

Gerson Daniel ALDUCIN CHÁVEZ ◽

Patricia NEGREROS-CASTILLO

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Performance Indicator ◽

Timber Harvesting ◽

Land Value ◽

Tropical Regions ◽

Slash And Burn ◽

Tropical Timber ◽

Long Run ◽

Residual Stock ◽

Rational Management

Tropical timber regions across the world share common problems such as degradation and poor regeneration after timber harvesting. Traditional Mayan land management through slash and burn is now recognized as an effective way of renewing forest stands in multispecies tropical forests. The practice of slash and burn for forest management in Mexico has led to area regulation, which has made land value a convenient means of assessing alternative forest plans. The use of expected land value as a performance indicator shifts the manager's attention from managing a species mix to balancing financial tradeoffs between liquidation or retention of the standing biomass. Since the forest-wide residual stock is so large, land value overrides the importance of revenue from timber sales. Several forest management methods along these lines have appeared in tropical regions of Mexico over a thirty-year time span and represent a patrimonial system of forest management (PS). The gradual innovation generated by PS is described here, as well as examples of PS practices. PS methods today provide stewardship for a total of 155,814 ha in different parts of Mexico. PS performance will become evident in the long run; in the meantime, the embrace of PS by private landowners and regulatory institutions is equated with a positive, independent opinion about PS design. The Mexican experience suggests pathways for rational management of all types of forests. PS features that are worth replicating are, for instance, the inclusion of disturbance patterns as factors in decision making, as well as the use of specific silvicultural regimes for roads, woodlands, closed forests, hilltops, swamps, riparian zones, clearings and forest edges.

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The Impact of Timber Harvesting Guidelines and Timber Sale Attributes on Stumpage Bidding Behavior

Northern Journal of Applied Forestry ◽

10.1093/njaf/22.4.275 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 275-280 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michael A. Kilgore ◽

Charles R. Blinn

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Timber Harvesting ◽

Physical Characteristics ◽

The Other ◽

Sources Of Information ◽

Bidding Behavior ◽

Specific Factors ◽

Timber Sale ◽

The Cost ◽

The Impact

Abstract Twenty-seven public timber tracts were auctioned in Minnesota where bidders were required to submit two sealed bids for a tract–one with and the other without the use of timber harvesting guidelines. After the auctions, bidders were mailed a questionnaire requesting information about their logging business, the sources of information consulted in developing their bids, and perceptions of how various tract- and sale-specific factors and guidelines influenced their bidding behavior. The majority of responding timber harvesters did not consult any special sources and only one-half visited the tract before submitting their bids. Although bidding behavior was influenced by several factors, a tract's physical characteristics (e.g., volume of merchantable timber) had a greater influence on their bidding behavior than did any guidelines. Of the guidelines evaluated, those that required leaving merchantable trees (e.g., for wildlife or visual purposes) were reported to have the greatest influence on stumpage bids. Sale-specific variables (e.g., timber harvester's need for timber) had only a minimal to moderate influence on bidding behavior. The findings suggest that timber sale design can help mitigate the cost associated with implementing forest management guidelines.North. J. Appl. For. 22(4):275–280.

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Presenting MASSIMO: A Management Scenario Simulation Model to Project Growth, Harvests and Carbon Dynamics of Swiss Forests

Forests ◽

10.3390/f10020094 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 94 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Golo Stadelmann ◽

Christian Temperli ◽

Brigitte Rohner ◽

Markus Didion ◽

Anne Herold ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Timber Harvesting ◽

Reference Levels ◽

Management Scenarios ◽

Individual Tree ◽

Development Models ◽

Management Scenario ◽

Species Mixture ◽

The Individual ◽

Business As Usual

Forest development models have been used to predict future harvesting potentials and forest management reference levels under the Kyoto guidelines. This contribution aims at presenting the individual-tree simulator MASSIMO and demonstrating its scope of applications with simulations of two possible forest management reference levels (base or business as usual) in an example application. MASSIMO is a suitable tool to predict timber harvesting potentials and forest management reference levels to assess future carbon budgets of Swiss forests. While the current version of MASSIMO accurately accounts for legacy effects and management scenarios, effects of climate and nitrogen deposition on growth, mortality, and regeneration are not yet included. In addition to including climate sensitivity, the software may be further improved by including effects of species mixture on tree growth and assessing ecosystem service provision based on indicators.

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Opportunities and costs of intensification and clustering of forest management activities

Canadian Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1139/x07-197 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 38 (4) ◽

pp. 711-720 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Anne-Hélène Mathey ◽

Emina Krcmar ◽

John Innes ◽

Ilan Vertinsky

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Boreal Forest ◽

Timber Harvesting ◽

Conservation Areas ◽

Intensive Forest Management ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Planning Approach ◽

Increasing Demand ◽

Canadian Boreal Forest ◽

The Cost

The intensification of forest management in Canada has been advocated as a possible solution to the conundrum that increasing demand for conservation areas and increasing pressure for timber production have created. The benefits and disadvantages of intensive forest management in the context of the Canadian boreal forest are unclear and reaching conclusions about its general value from stand analyses may be difficult. In this study, a boreal forest in Ontario has been used to investigate the potential of intensive management to generate financial revenues and meet management constraints on volume flow and old-growth retention. Two aspects of intensive forest management are considered: intensive silviculture and concentrated harvest activities. The plans are generated with a decentralized planning approach based on cellular automata. The results for the case study show that increasing silviculture intensity can help fulfill high timber flow requirements under strict conservation requirements. This comes at the cost of reduced net revenues but from a smaller timber harvesting landbase. The main trade-offs found were those between harvest flow and financial benefits. Clustering both protected areas and harvest operations could help achieve the conservation and timber-related objectives simultaneously by improving the habitat value of conserved areas and decreasing the operational costs in harvested areas.

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Estimation of Forest Area Affected by Local Ordinances: A Virginia Case Study

Southern Journal of Applied Forestry ◽

10.1093/sjaf/30.4.188 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 188-195

Author(s):

Stephen P. Prisley ◽

David R. Daversa ◽

Michael J. Mortimer

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Direct Effect ◽

Indirect Effects ◽

Local Governments ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Timber Harvesting ◽

Forest Area ◽

Buffer Zones ◽

Substantial Impact ◽

Local Ordinances

Abstract Local governments may enact ordinances that have a substantial impact on forestry operations. Direct estimation of the economic impact of ordinances requires site-specific forest inventory data and management assumptions. In this study, we attempt to quantify, for four counties in Virginia,the forest area that would be subjected to timber harvesting restrictions under local ordinances. Ordinances that restrict timber harvesting within buffer zones of roads, streams, and property boundaries were simulated for four study counties. Using GIS overlay analysis with forest cover data,estimates of forest area within these buffers were obtained. In addition to this direct effect, we considered indirect effects of ordinances as they fragment potential forest management parcels to small sizes (<20 ac) deemed less conducive to operational forest management. Direct effectsranged from 9 to 33% of operable forest area and averaged 21% of operable forest area. Indirect effects averaged 7% of operable forest area, or ⅓ of the direct effect. Ordinances focused on protecting visual quality affected twice as much forest area as ordinancesdirected toward preserving water quality. Of the total forest area in these four counties, 13.6% lies in protected areas, 27.7% is in inoperable small parcels (prior to ordinances), and 16.7% is affected directly or indirectly by ordinances, leaving only 42% offorest area potentially available for management. South. J. Appl. For. 30(4):182–187.

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Habitat Selection by the European Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus in North-Eastern Poland: Implications for Forest Management

Forests ◽

10.3390/f11030291 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 291

Author(s):

Michał Polakowski ◽

Monika Broniszewska ◽

Lucyna Kirczuk ◽

Zbigniew Kasprzykowski

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Habitat Selection ◽

Management Practices ◽

Bird Species ◽

Environmental Parameters ◽

Timber Harvesting ◽

Forest Edge ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Caprimulgus Europaeus ◽

Management Recommendations

Research Highlights: Intensive forest management practices generally have a negative effect on biodiversity. However, the creation of new, open habitats as a consequence of timber harvesting within large areas of woodland may be favorable to some bird species. Background and Objectives: Habitat selection of the European Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus in a coniferous woodland area in northeastern Poland was studied in order to specify management recommendations. Materials and Methods: To define the influence of various environmental parameters on territory occupation, 11 micro- and 3 macrohabitat factors were analyzed. Results: Denser vegetation in the ground layer deterred birds from nesting in clearings with such characteristics. Moreover, Nightjars preferentially inhabited sites adjacent to young stands of trees. Birds preferred plots with a higher number of clearings in the neighborhood, as this enabled them to enlarge their foraging area. Other microhabitat factors (e.g., the type, age and area of clearings), as well as macroscale factors like distances to the forest edge, nearest roads and human settlements, were of no importance. Conclusions: Knowledge of the Nightjar preferences may be useful in working out a compromise between an appropriate level of clear-felling and conservation of other bird species requiring preservation of old tree stands.

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Valuing a Logging Externality: Loss of the Water Purification Service of Temperate Coastal Rainforests

Water Economics and Policy ◽

10.1142/s2382624x16500326 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 03 (02) ◽

pp. 1650032 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Duncan Knowler ◽

Ashley Page ◽

Andrew Cooper ◽

H. Andres Araujo

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Forest Management ◽

Water Purification ◽

Environmental Influence ◽

Treatment Plant ◽

Water System ◽

Timber Harvesting ◽

Traffic Volume ◽

Multiple Use ◽

Trade Offs

In many biodiversity rich watersheds, there is a lack of understanding concerning the trade-offs between timber harvesting and maintaining the watershed’s other ecosystem services, where losses of these services can occur as an externality from timber harvesting. As a result, the potential benefit from an appropriate mix of activities in multiple-use watersheds frequently remains unrealized. Our study provides insight into such trade-offs by estimating the value of a loss in a forest’s water purification/filtration service due to sedimentation caused by logging (the externality). More specifically, we develop a model to quantify the economic impact of increased sedimentation from forest roads on the quality of raw water withdrawn by a municipal water utility. Our approach is novel in several ways. First, we recognize the complex response of the water treatment plant to elevated sedimentation (turbidity) by considering a stochastic environmental influence on water system performance; to accommodate this complexity, we estimate the number of times turbidity exceeds an acceptable threshold by using a count data estimation procedure. Second, we generate alternative time series for turbidity that vary according to assumptions about forest management (logging versus no logging), traffic volume (road use intensity) and aggregate road length. We find that reductions in the economic value of the water purification/filtration service is more sensitive to traffic volume than other considerations but only when the road use is High, as the welfare effect in other cases is modest. Our analysis will be helpful to forest planners who must consider the trade-offs in forest management when timber harvesting can have harmful impacts on important ecosystem services, such as water purification/filtration.

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