Treesearch

The contiguous United States is home to over 4,000 species of native, wild bees in addition to the European honeybee (Apis mellifera). Although a natural area is often positively correlated with increased wild bee diversity, abundance, and species richness, forests have historically been ignored as potential bee habitat due to their dense canopy cover and dominance by wind-pollinated trees.

Harvesting during winter is encouraged as a best management practice to protect soils during logging operations. We assessed the effects of machine traffic and slash volume on soil bulk density following a winter harvest of a northern hardwood forest on unfrozen cobbly silt loam soils. Soil samples were extracted from areas representing four levels of machine traffic (i.e., high, medium, low, and none) and two levels of overstory treatment (i.e., clearcut and partial cut). Results indicate that even low levels of traffic increased bulk density at the 0–5 cm depth. However, at the 5–10 cm...

Northern hardwoods produce a variety of logs suitable for different final products. It is generally understood that sorting logs based on grade generates maximum value for all stakeholders. However, the benefits of log sorting may depend also on the geographical distribution of forest stands and manufacturing mills. The objective of this study was to evaluate the profitability of log sorting based on geographical location of forest stands, destination mills, and market parameters . A decision-support tool was used to allocate logs from timber sales to highest-profit-yielding mills. Factors...

Improving financial revenues from partial cuts in sugar maple (Acer saccharum) stands at the northern edge of the species' range involves harvesting trees that have reached their financial maturity size (i.e., the diameter at which their monetary value is greatest and beyond which there is no further gain). To establish the lumber value of each tree at the sawmill, a sample of 171 trees were measured, felled, bucked into logs, and sawn into boards. We estimated their value changes over 10 years using data from a network of permanent sample plots. The most vigorous and best quality maples...

Many shelterwood variants use even- and uneven-aged concepts to manage stands with complex or patchy structure. It can take a skilled practitioner to prescribe, apply, or discern the system or hybrid being used, (e.g., single tree selection (STS); thinning, continuous cover (CC), group selection, irregular shelterwood (IS), expanding gap; and/or extended irregular shelterwood (EIS). This presentation will discuss the southwestern Ontario situation, IS systems and their application, and four case studies in exceptional stands with histories of good forest management (GFM).

Management of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) has the primary objective of growing trees that will produce high quality wood (Germain et al. 2015). As such, forest management often prioritizes the release of crop trees. However, in order to produce high value logs, there is an investment cost in the amount of time it takes for a tree to reach a desired size. Additionally, the collection of landowner goals, only some of which are economic, strongly impact management decisions. In species such as sugar maple, the length of time required to meet the basic specifications for sawlogs is sufficientl...

The tree selection method for harvesting during all-aged management in the northern hardwood forest type has been well studied on research forests throughout the Lake States region. Many of these methods, developed in the 1950s, have been widely accepted and implemented by foresters who are working to develop quality sawn hardwood products. More recent research has indicated that forest managers are not always applying these all-aged approaches explicitly. Moreover, in many cases, the resulting stand conditions found in the years following individual tree selection practices do not result...

Hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) threatens the existence of eastern hemlock trees and associated ecosystems. We propose that increasing canopy light exposure via silvicultural thinning can reduce hemlock’s vulnerability to HWA. Four, overstocked stands on the Allegheny National Forest were selected for thinning. There was no HWA infestation and half of each stand was thinned. Thirty circular plots per stand were established surrounding a hemlock targeted for crown release on 3 to 4 sides. Similar criteria were used to select hemlocks in 30 untreated plots. We visited subject trees prethinning,...

Quality is an important determinant of the end use of wood, and therefore its value. Silviculture and growing environment can influence wood characteristics of softwood species (Barnett and Jeronimidis 2003, Shmulsky and Jones 2011, Zobel and Van Buijtenen 1989); however, less is known about these influences in hardwoods (Dickinson et al. 2019). A number of tree species typical of northern hardwood forests such as sugar maple have been conventionally utilized primarily for aesthetic applications and are therefore graded visually. However, the recent expansion of engineered wood products...

The hardwood resource of the eastern United States often is associated with high quality sawtimber used in the production of lumber and veneer consumed in domestic appearance applications or exported. However, the high quality segment of the eastern hardwood resource accounts for approximately 20 percent of the cubic volume of merchantable trees (Luppold and Pugh 2016). In the northern regions of the eastern United States, the proportional volume of higher quality timber is discernably larger. Still, combined mid- and low-quality sawtimber size (11 inches d.b.h. and larger) tree volume...