Silviculture

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Harvesting Practices
Jim Finley School of Forest Resources Penn State
University
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What Well Cover

• Your Objectives
• Forests Change
• Professional Role
• Planning
• Access
• What Stays and Goes
• Residuals
• Regeneration
• Protecting Productivity
• Sustaining Values

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The Timber Harvest Paradox

• The harvest represents the most opportune time to
  have a positive impact on the forest.
• The harvest, without forethought, can have
  long-term significant negative impacts on the
  forest

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Stewardship

• Wise care and use ensuring forest health and
  productivity
• Recognizing your rights and the rights of
  others today and tomorrow
• An ethic looking beyond immediate personal
  needs to leaving a legacy

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Stewardship Plan A Road Map to Sustainable
Forests

• Resources
• Condition
• Actions to Achieve Goals
• Considers Short and Long-term Objectives
• Analyzes Capabilities, Limitations, and Unique
  Features
• Looks Beyond Your Boundaries to the Landscape
• Evaluates Diverse Environmental and Financial
  Benefits and Consequences of Various Activities

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Stewardship Planning Basic Steps

• Seek Professional Assistance
• Determine YOUR
• Values
• Objectives
• Goals
• Learn What You Have (Inventory/Evaluate)
• Create a Schedule of Actions (Inactions)
• Review the Plan

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Forests Function as Systems
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• One of the penalties of an ecological education
  is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.
  Much of the damage inflicted on the land is quite
  invisible to laymen . . . in a community that
  believes itself well and does want to be told
  otherwise.
• A. Leopold

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Silviculture
The theory (science) and practice (art) of
positively controlling forest establishment,
composition, structure, and growth
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The Role of Timber Harvesting in Forest
Stewardship

• Why Harvest?
• Meeting Objectives
• Establishing Desired Conditions
• Forest Stewardship and Sustainability
• Retaining Options
• Planning or Happenstance

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Stand Development Shade Tolerance White
Tolerant Dotted Intermediate Striped
Intolerant
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1928
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1937
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S
S
1947
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A
S
S
1958
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A
S
S
1968
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A
S
S
1978
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S
S
A
1988
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S
S
1998
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The Role of Cutting
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Simply Silviculture Is
What you leave Residual

• What you establish
• Regeneration

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Cutting

• Remove Competition
• Control Light
• Redistribute Growth
• Control Species Composition
• Meet Objectives
• Produce Income
• Improve Other Values

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Low Shade
High Shade
Light Characteristics Quantity Quality, and
Duration
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Competitive Plants

• Ferns
• Hayscented
• New York
• Bracken
• Mountain Laurel
• Stripped Maple
• Beech Brush
• Grapevines

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Cover for Little Seed Eaters
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Simply Silviculture Is
What you leave Residual

• What you establish
• Regeneration

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Seven Questions

• Regeneration What is . . .
• the role of interfering plants?
• the condition of existing advance regeneration?
• the impact of deer?
• Residual Trees What happens to . . .
• species composition?
• seed source?
• residual tree quality?
• average stand diameter?

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Regeneration Systems

• Uneven-aged
• Single Tree Selection
• Group Selection
• Even-aged
• Seed Tree
• Shelterwood
• Clearcut

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Uneven-aged Stand Structure Shade Tolerant Species
N U M B E R O F T R E E S
Original Stand
Residual Stand
DIAMETER (AGE)
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Single Tree Selection (Uneven-aged)

Univ. of Minnesota Extension
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Group Selection (Uneven-aged)

Univ. of Minnesota Extension
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Even-aged Stand Structure Mixed Species
N U M B E R O F T R E E S
All Species
Sugar Maple
White Ash
Black Cherry
DIAMETER
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• Crown Placement
• Condition
• Species

Univ. of Minnesota Extension.
Univ. of Minnesota Extension
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Seed Tree (Even Aged)

Univ. of Minnesota Extension
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Shelterwood (Even Aged)

Univ. of Minnesota Extension
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Clearcut (Even Aged)
Clearcut

Univ. of Minnesota Extension
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Simply Silviculture Is
What you leave Residual

• What you establish
• Regeneration

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Seven Questions

• Regeneration What is . . .
• the role of interfering plants?
• the condition of existing advance regeneration?
• the impact of deer?
• Residual Trees What happens to . . .
• species composition?
• seed source?
• residual tree quality?
• average stand diameter?

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Single Species Stand Structure
N U M B E R O F T R E E S
Average Diameter
DIAMETER
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Single Species Thinning
N U M B E R O F T R E E S
Diameter Before Cutting
Diameter After Cutting
DIAMETER
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• Crown Placement
• Condition
• Species

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Hardwood Quality

• Species
• Size
• Surface
• Interior
• Survivability

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Mixed Species Stand Structure
N U M B E R O F T R E E S
All Species
Sugar Maple
White Ash
Black Cherry
DIAMETER
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Mixed Species Thinning
N U M B E R O F T R E E S
All Species
Sugar Maple
White Ash
Black Cherry
DIAMETER
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Simply Silviculture Is

• What you leave
• The Residual
• What you establish
• The Regeneration

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Growing Quality Focus on Retention

• Species
• Site
• Diversity
• Markets
• Condition
• Quality
• Crown
• Competition
• Risks

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Diameter and Age
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Photo from C. Nowak
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Selective Harvest/Cut Diameter Limit
Cut High-grade
N U M B E R O F T R E E S
All Species
White Ash
Sugar Maple
Black Cherry
DIAMETER
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Seven Questions

• Regeneration What is . . .
• the role of interfering plants?
• the condition of existing advance regeneration?
• the impact of deer?
• Residual Trees What happens to . . .
• species composition?
• seed source?
• residual tree quality?
• average stand diameter?

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Soil and Water
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Getting Started

• Forest Stewardship Plan
• Define your objectives
• Seek professional assistance.
• Know what you have and where it is
• Formulate a ten-year schedule
• Review your plan frequently

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Access

• Land Maintenance
• Recreation Access
• Trespass
• Temporary/Permanent Roads
• Use BMPs
• Protect Water
• Follow Regulations

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Finding Assistance

• Bureau of Forestry
• Private Natural Resource
• Consultants
• Forest Industry
• Conservation Districts
• Woodland Owner Assoc.
• Pa. Forestry Assoc.
• County groups
• Penn State Extension

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Timber Harvesting

• Forests Diverse and Complex
• Tool of Change
• Cuts both Ways
• Science-based
• D-Cutting Doesnt Work
• Selective vs. Selection
• Have a Plan
• Seek Professional Assistance to Meet YOUR Short-
  and Long-term Goals

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What Weve Covered

• Your Objectives
• Forests Change
• Professional Role
• Planning
• Access
• What Stays and Goes
• Residuals
• Regeneration
• Protecting Productivity
• Sustaining Values

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Finding Common Ground
Foresters
Sustainable Forests
Forest Landowners
Primary Manufacturers
Loggers
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Contact Information Jim Finley Penn State
University School of Forest Resources 302
Forest Resources Building University Park, PA
16802 Phone [phone] Email
jfinley_at_psu.edu Web Resources RNRext.cas.psu.e
du
Questions?
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Resources You May Want

• Planning Your Forests Future, Bulletin No 6
• http//pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/uh079.pdf
• Best Management Practices for PA Forests,
  Bulletin No. 12
• http//pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/uh102.pdf
• Sources of Information and Guidance, Bulletin No
  2
• http//pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/uh076.pdf
• Timber Harvesting an Essential Tool, Bulletin No
  7
• http//pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/uh082.pdf