USDA Forest Service farm woodlands case study - 50 year results from West Virgina

Abstract

Recognizing that fire, grazing, and poor cutting practices had compromised much productivity in farm woodlots in the early 1900s, USDA Forest Service personnel established a demonstration on the Fernow Experimental Forest (FEF) to show the feasibility of two harvesting systems that could be used to maintain or enhance stand productivity and provide private forest land owners with biennial revenue. Beginning in 1950, treatments were applied to create single-tree selection and 4 percent diameter limit cutting in two compartments. In this paper we document a shift in species composition, relatively equal volumes in removals, and generally increasing growing stock levels over the course of the intervening 50 years.

Parent Publication

• 13th Central Hardwoods Forest Conference

Citation

McGill, David W.; Schuler, Thomas M. 2003. USDA Forest Service farm woodlands case study - 50 year results from West Virgina. General Technical Report NC-234. St. Paul, MN: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, North Central Research Station