Use of Prescribed Burning to Enhance Southern Pine Timber Production

1980 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bigler Crow ◽  
Charles L. Shilling
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Effects ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Growth And Yield ◽  
Timber Production ◽  
Stand Development ◽  
Southern Pine ◽  
Development Control

Abstract Prescribed burning benefits pine timber production in many ways. It can facilitate regeneration and early stand development, control unwanted vegetation, reduce loss from certain diseases, thin overdense young stands, make working in an area easier and cheaper and, perhaps, encourage increased growth and yield. In most cases it enables the management objective to be achieved at reduced cost. As with any use of prescription fire, it must be carefully and skillfully applied to minimize loss and avoid adverse environmental effects.

Silviculture that sustains: the nexus between silviculture, frequent prescribed fire, and conservation of biodiversity in longleaf pine forests of the southeastern United States

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (11) ◽  
pp. 2724-2736 ◽  
Author(s):  
R J Mitchell ◽  
J K Hiers ◽  
J J O'Brien ◽  
S B Jack ◽  
R T Engstrom
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Longleaf Pine ◽  
Pinus Palustris ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Growth And Yield ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Patterns And Processes ◽  
Conservation Of Biodiversity

The longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) forest ecosystems of the US southeastern Coastal Plain, among the most biologically diverse ecosystems in North America, originally covered over 24 × 106 ha but now occupy less than 5% of their original extent. The key factor for sustaining their high levels of diversity is the frequent application of prescribed fire uninterrupted in time and space. Pine fuels, critical to application of fire and regulated by canopy distribution, provide the nexus between silviculture and fire management in this system. Typical silvicultural approaches for this type were, in large part, developed to maximize the establishment and growth of regeneration as well as growth and yield of timber, with much less regard to how those practices might influence the ability to sustain prescribed burning regimes or the associated biodiversity. However, many landholdings in the region now include conservation of biodiversity as a primary objective with sustained timber yield as an important but secondary goal. This review synthesizes the literature related to controls of biodiversity for longleaf pine ecosystems, and silvicultural approaches are compared in their ability to sustain natural disturbance such as fire and how closely they mimic the variation, patterns, and processes of natural disturbance regimes while allowing for regeneration.

Measuring Wildfire Impacts: Method and Case Study

1987 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-147
Author(s):  
W. L. Mills ◽  
S. D. Shnitzler ◽  
R. S. Meldahl
Keyword(s):  
Economic Impact ◽  
Cash Flow ◽  
Flow Model ◽  
Growth And Yield ◽  
Timber Production ◽  
Discounted Cash Flow ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Data Requirements

Abstract A discounted cash flow model called the Impact Appraisal Model (IAM) computes the economic impact due to a change in timber production caused by a wildfire. Data requirements for the IAM can be obtained using standard inventory procedures to estimate the pre- and post-fire stand conditionsneeded to initiate a growth and yield simulator. The model is demonstrated using five loblolly plantations that burned in 1980 and 1981. South. J. Appl. For. 11(3):143-147.

scholarly journals Influence of Pine Straw Harvesting, Prescribed Fire, and Fertilization on a Louisiana Longleaf Pine Site

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
James D. Haywood
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Longleaf Pine ◽  
Pinus Palustris ◽  
Growth And Yield ◽  
Prescribed Burn ◽  
Straw Management ◽  
Pine Straw ◽  
Main Plot ◽  
Direct Seeded

Abstract This research was initiated in a 34-year-old, direct-seeded stand of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) to study how pine straw management practices (harvesting, fire, and fertilization) affected the longleaf pine overstory and pine straw yields. A randomized complete block split-plot design was installed with two main plot treatments: (1) no fertilization and (2) fertilization with 45 lb N and 50 lb P/ac in April 1991 and May 1997 and with 50 lb P and 72 lb K/ac in April 2004. There were four subplot treatments: (1) control—no activity except a standwide thinning in June 1999, (2) prescribed burn 6 times from March 1991 through May 2004, (3) prescribed burned as in subplot treatment 2 and pine straw harvested in early 1992 and 1993, and (4) annual harvest of pine straw 13 times from early 1992 through April 2006. Fertilization did not affect longleaf pine growth and yield over the 15-year study. Subplot management also did not influence longleaf pine growth possibly because the adverse effects that competition, repeated prescribed burning, and litter removal have on longleaf pine growth could not be separated among subplot treatments. Fertilization did not directly affect pine straw yields; however, it appeared that pine straw yields decreased over time.

scholarly journals Pine Straw Raking and Growth of Southern Pine: Review and Recommendations

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 799
Author(s):  
David Dickens ◽  
Lawrence Morris ◽  
David Clabo ◽  
Lee Ogden
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Growth Parameters ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Growth And Yield ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Southern Pine ◽  
Old Field ◽  
Stand Growth ◽  
Private Landowner ◽  
Pine Straw

Pine straw, the uppermost forest floor layer of undecayed, reddish-brown pine needles, is raked, baled, and sold as a landscaping mulch throughout the southeastern United States. Loblolly (Pinus taeda, L.), longleaf (P. palustris, Mill.), and slash (P. elliottii Engelm. var. elliottii) pine are the three southern pine species commonly raked for pine straw. The value of pine straw as a forest product is large. Private landowner pine straw revenues have steadily increased throughout the southeastern United States over the past two decades and now total more than USD 200 million. Information is limited on the short- or long-term effects of pine straw removal on foliage production or stand growth in southern pine stands. Results from most published studies suggest that annual pine straw raking without fertilization on non-old-field sites reduces straw yields compared to no raking. Old-field sites often do not benefit from fertilization with increased pine straw or wood volume yields. Though fertilization may be beneficial for pine straw production on some sites, understory vegetation presence and disease prevalence may increase following fertilization. This review addresses pine straw removal effects on pine straw production and stand growth parameters based on recent studies and provides fertilization recommendations to maintain or improve pine straw production and stand growth and yield.

scholarly journals Economic optimization of the rotation age of stands

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 188-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lech Płotkowski ◽  
Stanisław Zając ◽  
Emilia Wysocka-Fijorek ◽  
Arkadiusz Gruchała ◽  
Jarosław Piekutin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Growth And Yield ◽  
Timber Production ◽  
Economic Optimization ◽  
Current Increase ◽  
Economic Relationships ◽  
Biological Growth ◽  
Total Inventory ◽  
Production Value ◽  
Rotation Age

Abstract The central task of this research was to choose the age at which stands of growing timber should be harvested. The choice governs how long each stand must continue to earn interest, and also governs the size of the total inventory that must be maintained to sustain the annual harvest. It is a problem that calls for analysis of biological as well as economic relationships over time, and has intrigued economists for more than two centuries. The paper presents the theoretical background and results of economic optimization of the rotation age of a single stand. It analyses the timber production function depending on rotation age, growth, cost and other characteristics of forest, as well as the costs of land. The prerequisite for achieving the economic optimum of the rotation age of a stand is to balance the current increase in the total timber production value (growth and yield) and the value of opportunity costs from delaying cutting till the next year. This paper demonstrates how this economically optimum rotation age can be calculated, and how it varies according to the biological growth and economic parameters of the forest.

Simulating the effects of prescribed burning on fuel loading and timber production (EcoFL) in managed northern Wisconsin forests

2006 ◽  
Vol 196 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 395-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soung-Ryoul Ryu ◽  
Jiquan Chen ◽  
Daolan Zheng ◽  
Mary K. Bresee ◽  
Thomas R. Crow
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Timber Production ◽  
Fuel Loading

scholarly journals Simulating Multiaged Coast Redwood Stand Development: Interactions between Regeneration, Structure, and Productivity

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
John-Pascal Berrill ◽  
Kevin L. O'Hara
Keyword(s):  
Stand Structure ◽  
Basal Area ◽  
Stand Density ◽  
Site Index ◽  
Growth And Yield ◽  
Stand Development ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Coast Redwood ◽  
Stand Growth ◽  
Upper Limit

Abstract Multiaged management regimes and harvesting scenarios were simulated in coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens [D. Don.] Endl.) stands using models of stand growth and yield (CRYPTOS) and stocking assessment (redwood MASAM). Various stocking and age-class combinations were modeled on site index 100 and 130 ft (50 years). Results demonstrated how the number of cohorts, upper limit of stocking, and cohort densities affected growth and yield. Board foot volume increment reached a plateau in stands with a prescribed upper limit of stocking above leaf area index 7.2 to 8.6. Productivity did not differ between stands with two to five cohorts producing the same tree size at harvest. It was affected by stand structure when a cutting cycle of 20 years was prescribed in stands with three to five cohorts. Stands with the same density returned to the upper limit of stocking much sooner on better sites. Prolonging the cutting cycle by reducing stand density resulted in larger tree sizes at harvest and greater productivity. The growth of trees remaining after cutting 10–50% of stand basal area and growth of new stump sprouts were also simulated. Stands quickly returned to preharvest stocking after light cutting, implying that heavy or frequent light cutting is needed to sustain growth and vigor of regeneration in multiaged coast redwood stands.

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