Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Maine Woodlands
Publisher
Maine Woodland Owners
Publication Date
4-2022
Issue Number
4
Volume Number
47
Abstract/ Summary
An essential first step in any long-term program to rehabilitate a degraded forest is obtaining a forest management plan (FMP) through the NRCS EQIP program. The FMP, prepared by a licensed forester and credentialled Technical Services Provider, provides a statistically sound inventory of your woodlot's tree species, sizes, soils, and topography, dividing it into distinct forest stands. This background allows a consulting forester to devise silvicultural treatments that address the consequences of past mismanagement, such as understocking and poorly adapted species. Furthermore, the plan is necessary to access federal cost-shared practices like planting and thinning.
Silvicultural rehabilitation must match treatments to the current developmental stage of the forest stand. In the stand initiation stage, which occurs after a recent heavy harvest (within five years), there is vacant growing space, but natural regeneration is often poor due to lost seed sources and damaged advance regeneration. The appropriate treatment here may be enrichment planting to introduce or restore desired species. Planting should occur soon after the harvest, before competing vegetation becomes dominant. If more than five years have elapsed since the harvest, the land is likely in the stem-exclusion stage, characterized by dense sapling regeneration that consumes all available resources, making planting ineffective. In this stage, cleanings, which involve selectively removing individual stems to favor desired species and alter stand composition, can be highly beneficial. Precommercial thinning (PCT) can also be applied to reduce overall stand density, allowing remaining trees to grow faster and develop better form. These treatments in mixed-species stands can be complex, requiring consideration of height stratification to release lower strata from overtopping species and recognizing invisible species that should not be cut.
Repository Citation
Seymour, Robert S., "Rehabilitation Silviculture for Degraded Forests: Management Plans and Practices" (2022). Silviculture and Management of Maine’s Forests. 5.
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/silviculture/5
Version
publisher's version of the published document
