Treesearch

The valued-added wood manufacturing industry includes firms that use primary wood products, such as lumber or veneer, to produce higher value products, including flooring, cabinets, or furniture. Wisconsin’s value-added wood industry is an important sector for the State's economy and serves as a vital downstream market for forest raw materials. A survey was conducted with the Wisconsin value-added wood industry in 2018 to better understand the current economic impacts, markets, and needs of this industry. Results suggest that employment opportunities exist. Enrollment in a forest certificat...

The collection of sap from dormant maple trees in eastern North America predates European arrival on the continent. While written accounts of maple production by Native Americans from early French explorers exist from the late 17th century, a far richer oral history of how early cultures came to produce a sweet product from maple trees is best told by members of those cultures themselves.

A 27,000-acre forest in northern New Hampshire provides a case study for evaluating the long-term outcomes of silvicultural prescriptions and cutting practices on forest growth and quality. This 214-year ownership has harvested timber since 1828 and maintained inventory data since 1947. The hardwood inventory data collected in 1947, 1967, 1986, 1998, and 2018 indicates that the practice of sound silviculture has not only upgraded products for increased value but has increased overall productivity allowing an increased sustainable yield. The study considers how exploitive cutting and...

This project compares two northern hardwood shelterwood harvests in northern Minnesota that were logged the same year but with different variables: 1. Fall harvest versus winter harvest 2. Loamy fine sand versus fine sandy loam. The silvicultural objective for the project was to take two northern hardwood stands dominated by sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and paper birch (Betula papyrifera) and covert them to northern red oak (Quercus rubra), American basswood (Tilia americana), and paper birch stands through a two-step shelterwood prescription. This strategy was used successfully to...

Prior to the 1990s, diameter-limit cutting was widely used in Québec, Canada, to harvest valuable trees in hardwood-dominated temperate forests. This practice can impoverish stands in terms of volume, structure, composition, wood quality and regeneration. As a result, many high-graded stands still require rehabilitation today. This study assessed the 15-year effects of four regeneration methods combined with three scarification treatments in yellow birch–conifer stands. Cutting and scarification treatments did not increase the regeneration of desired species (birches, spruces and fir)....

Forest stewards aim to ensure forest sustainability through the application of the best available science. However, current silvicultural guidelines were developed under historical social, economic, and ecological conditions. When applied under novel conditions, these guidelines may have unpredictable or undesirable outcomes. Furthermore, silviculturists increasingly aim to manage ecosystems as complex adaptive systems, which requires a holistic understanding of ecosystem processes and functions. We established the Northern Hardwood Silviculture Experiment (NH-SEED) to develop alternative...

Throughout the range of the northern hardwood cover type, single tree selection is one of the most commonly prescribed natural regeneration systems. Unfortunately, being a common prescription does not necessarily mean that it is commonly implemented properly. This paper provides a case study for single tree selection management as implemented by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Foresters in northern Wisconsin. It reviews stand assessment, prescription writing, marking guide development, and timber marking. This case study also examines lessons learned. These lessons learned...

A selection system was applied to an uneven-aged stand consisting of mature northern hardwoods. Through group and individual selection on a 10- to 20-year cutting cycle, red maple and sugar maple were drastically decreased in basal area to promote the growth of quality crop trees and allow greater structural diversity in the stand.

The stand is located approximately ¼ mile north of a residential area surrounding Augustine Lake in northern Wisconsin. The surrounding area is a mix of county owned forest and private forest land. This stand underwent a single tree selection harvest in 1986 and again in the summers of 2006 and 2007. The stand is 138 acres and the primary forest type is northern hardwood (large sawlog size class [15+ inches d.b.h.], medium density [71–110 ft2/ac]), and the dominant overstory species are sugar maple and basswood; yellow birch only accounts for 2 percent of the overstory.

Forest understory vegetation complexes that interfere with management objectives can consist of native and nonnative species ranging from annual herbs to long-lived woody species. Each species presents different challenges if they have reached a threshold that warrants a management response to restore and maintain habitat, ecological function, productive potential, and other values commonly associated with woodlands.