Silvicultural Strategies for Promoting Longleaf Pine Recruitment in Multiaged Stands

Abstract

In longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystems, an objective of some landowners is to develop multiaged stands with a component of large longleaf pine trees. A potential strategy to accelerate recruitment of trees to larger size classes is to purposefully release saplings within dense patches of longleaf pine. At The Jones Center at Ichauway, we thinned patches of sapling-sized trees within mature stands. We thinned from below with the modification that some dominant and codominant trees were also cut. Before thinning, average densities within patches of two harvest areas were 712 and 1,145 trees per acre. Many patches had stand density index values close to those associated with the onset of competition-induced mortality. Thinning was done with a feller-buncher and there was minimal damage to residual saplings. Precommercial thinning in multiaged stands of open pine systems is an investment but may accomplish objectives such as enhanced carbon accumulation and groundcover productivity.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the 22nd Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference

Citation

Puhlick, Joshua J.; Knapp, Benjamin O.; Goldberg, Ian; Rutledge, Brandon T.; Taylor, R. Scott; Willis, John L. 2024. Silvicultural Strategies for Promoting Longleaf Pine Recruitment in Multiaged Stands. In: Bragg, Don C.; Oswald, Brian P.; Koerth, Nancy E., eds. Proceedings of the 22nd biennial southern silvicultural research conference. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-274. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station: 311–316. https://doi.org/10.2737/SRS-GTR-274-Pap48.