A comparison of different tending variants in beech stands by the crown thinning and from the view of their quantitative and qualitative development

Abstract

Impact of tending on dvelopment of beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) pole timber stands was analysed using different variants of the free crown thinning, i.e. the original method developed in Slovakia at the end of 1950s. Four variants of this method were compared: (i) -the free crown thinning on the whole area, the method of promising trees, later the method of target trees at stand age of 58 years. (ii) -the free crown thinning on non-whole area, tending realised inside of growth space of target trees only, the method of target trees, salvage cutting on the whole area. (iii) -the free crown thinning on non-whole area, the method of promising trees (the method of target trees at stand age of 58 years) realised on circular plots with diameter 4 m and spacing 8 m (distance between centre of circular plots). (iv) -combined selective method, thinning from below and the free crown thinning by method of target trees was used by the first thinning, in next thinning only the free crown thinning on whole-area was used, method of target trees. The structure (diameter and height) of the stand, the quantitative production parameters had been observed for a period of 30 years. Small differences were found in diameter and height structure between the variant (iv) and other three ones.Comparison of quantitative production pointed out minimum differences in favour of the variant (iv) compared to the other ones. The same results were also obtained in the qualitative production, especially for selective quality (target trees).

Work Productivity, Costs and Environmental Impacts of Two Thinning Methods in Italian Beech High Forests

“…There is, therefore, the need to craft beech silviculture according to these issues, and a possible solution could be the development of alternative thinning methods which are based on the concept of crop-tree management [16][17][18][19]. This alternative method is based on the concept of selecting a limited number of target trees (a number comparable to the final density at the beginning of the regeneration period), which are the most promising individuals in the stand, concerning both economic value and ability to produce seeds [20,21], and localizing the intervention around these target trees by removing the direct canopy competitors [14].…”

Dynamics of Fagus sylvatica L. Necrotization under Different Pollutant Load Conditions

“…occur. The BBD dynamics in beech stands can be corrected to a certain extent by various forestry measures, e.g., the interesting data about BBD dynamics in beech thinning forests were obtained in Central Slovakia [15]. In these stands we applied the methods of selective support of target trees combined with a sanitary negative selection of heavily necrotically attacked beech trees.…”