Following the appointment of the new Cabinet, the Forest Sector now reports to the ministère des Ressources naturelles et des Forêts, while the Wildlife and Parks Sectors report to the ministère de l'Environnement, de la Lutte aux changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs. Adjustments will be made to the website over time.

Back to publications

The irregular shelterwood system: Review, classification, and potential application to forests affected by partial disturbances

Summary

Published in Journal of Forestry (December): 405-413

Structurally different from even-aged and balanced uneven-aged stands, irregular stands are an integral part of forested landscapes in northeastern North America. The maintenance or restoration of irregular stand structure may be desirable, especially in areas under ecosystem-based management. This can be achieved at the stand level through the implementation of irregular shelterwood systems. The objectives of this synthesis are to assemble the existing knowledge about the system, clarify the terminology in use, and discuss its place in silviculture in northeastern North America. Irregular shelterwood is compared with other regeneration methods and we propose a classification based on three variants. This silvicultural system is compatible with ecosystem-based management in forest types driven by partial stand mortality and gap dynamics and provides opportunities for maintaining old-growth forest attributes. However, it presents important challenges, especially with regards to planning, growth and yield prediction, and operational application.

Sector(s): 

Forests

Categorie(s): 

Scientific Article

Theme(s): 

Forestry Research, Forests, Silviculture

Author(s)

RAYMOND, Patricia, Steve BÉDARD, Vincent ROY, Catherine LAROUCHE and Stéphane TREMBLAY

Year of publication :

2009

Keywords :

aménagement écosystémique, sylviculture des peuplements irréguliers, CPI, variantes de coupe progressive irrégulière, méthode de régénération, sylviculture des forêts naturelles mélangées, sylviculture et rendement des forêts naturelles - peuplements feuillus, sylviculture et rendement des forêts naturelles - peuplements mélangés, sylviculture et rendement des forêts naturelles - peuplements résineux, silviculture and yield of natural forests - hardwood stands, silviculture and yield of natural forests - mixed stands, silviculture and yield of natural forests - softwood stands, ecosystem-based management, irregular uneven-aged silviculture, multiaged stand, irregular shelterwood variants, regeneration methods

Partagez