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

Simplified tree marking guidelines enhance value recovery as well as stand vigour in northern hardwood forests under selection management

Summary

Published in International Journal of Forest Research 2023: cpad045.https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpad045

In northern hardwood forests, tree markers select the trees to be harvested during logging operations using classification systems that assign harvest priorities based on the presence of a wide range of individual defects. According to the most recent advances in our understanding of the impact of defects on both tree vigour (the risk of mortality or decline in growth) and quality (the potential for recovering valuable sawlogs), tree markers should adopt a simpler classification system that considers fewer defects than the current operational practice, and they should prioritize the removal of trees with crown dieback. Since the probability of developing defects and dying increases substantially with tree diameter, tree markers should also favour the removal of larger trees that have maintained their quality. However, these recommendations were developed based on tree-level analyses. To provide further validation at the stand scale, we compared stand improvement and value recovery under three tree marking regimes: a new, simplified regime based on the recommendations above, and two regimes used in the province of Quebec, Canada. To do so, we conducted tree marking simulations and value recovery assessments in 14 managed stands distributed across the northern hardwood range of Quebec. Our results confirmed that the simplified tree marking regime not only facilitated stand improvement by removing a greater proportion of low-vigour trees, but also recovered significantly more value (17% on average) at the stand scale. By prioritizing the removal of trees with crown dieback, the simplified regime was superior at salvaging the current value of low-vigour trees before they die or decline in quality. Based on our results, we propose simplified and empirically-validated tree marking guidelines for northern hardwood forests.

Sector(s): 

Forests

Categorie(s): 

Scientific Article

Theme(s): 

Forestry Research, Forests, Silviculture

Departmental author(s): 

Bédard, Steve, Guillemette, François

Author(s)

MOREAU, Guillaume, Catherine CHAGNON, Malcolm J.L. CECIL-COCKWELL, David POTHIER, Alexis ACHIM, Steve BÉDARD, François GUILLEMETTE and John CASPERSEN

Year of publication :

2023

Keywords :

article scientifique, scientific article, sylviculture et rendement des forêts naturelles – peuplements de feuillus, silviculture and yield of natural forests - hardwood stands, partial cut, sugar maple, yellow birch, selection cutting, tree vigor, coupe partielle, érablière, érable à sucre, bouleau jaune, martelage, vigueur des arbres

Partagez