Mitigating midterm timber supply shortage using commercial thinning operations. A case study from British Columbia, Canada

Griess, Verena C.; Man, Cosmin D.; Polinko, Adam; Spies, Jillian

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2019.04.003

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Although thinning is a common practice in many countries and its general effects are well known, it is a relatively new practice in western Canada [20,21], due to real or perceived policy barriers [22] and uncertainty in the benefits of thinning such as residual tree growth response. This is especially true in western Canada during the transition from basic reforestation to more intensive forest management on public land [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thinning Increases Individual Tree Growth While Reducing the Growth Heterogeneity of Lodgepole Pine

Ara

Pinno

Scaria

et al. 2023

Forests

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The positive effect of thinning on individual tree growth is well known, but the subsequent growth dynamics of individual trees over a rotation is relatively unknown, even though this is critical for interpreting actual thinning effects. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate the thinning response of individual tree growth dynamics of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) over rotation using an individual tree growth model. We used data from an operational site to use as input to the Mixedwood Growth Model, an individual tree growth model, to simulate tree growth throughout the rotation. Overall, we found that thinning increased the absolute growth of individual trees and reduced the growth heterogeneity throughout the rotation. Combining pre-commercial thinning prior to commercial thinning provided maximum growth and less growth variability in individual trees. The positive effect of thinning was immediate and declined with time since thinning with most of the responses occurred within the first 10–15 years of thinning.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thinning Increases Individual Tree Growth While Reducing the Growth Heterogeneity of Lodgepole Pine

Ara

Pinno

Scaria

et al. 2023

Forests

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“…In other parts of the planning horizon, the forest is well-supplied with timber, but the over-supply is not harvested. Intensive management might increase timber supply in such gaps (Mathey et al 2008;Griess et al 2019) by reducing time to stand merchantability (Hossain et al 2022). In many jurisdictions, flow of timber must also be within 5% of long-term average (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There have been relatively few published assessments of effects of intensive management on wood supply at a full forest level (Hegan and Luckert 2000), although late thinning regimes were shown to increase forest level yield (Jamnick et al 1994). Only Griess et al (2019) seem to D r a f t have attempted this type of analysis with modern growth and yield curves, but in their case, thinning was usually applied in older stands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intensive management increases flexibility in managing wood supply

Lieffers

Pinno

Johnson³

et al. 2023

Can. J. For. Res.

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We modelled the potential impact of intensification of plantation management and thinning, on timber supply of an ~500,000 ha forest in Alberta, Canada over a 200-year planning horizon. Pre-commercial and commercial thinning were applied to a portion of the better sites, which allowed shortening of the time to merchantability and earlier harvest than unthinned stands; less than 25% of the forest was thinned over the course of the plan. The sustainable harvest rate, represented here as the annual allowable cut (AAC), increased by ~14% above baseline, when thinning was applied. Similarly, there was a 20.7% increase in AAC projected with the relaxation of even flow rules if thinning was also applied. Finally, thinning offset the expected decline in AAC after a 20-year surge in cutting of mature pine, designed to slow an epidemic of mountain pine beetle. In terms of wood supply, the volume extracted at thinning was <2% of annual supply but volume from final harvest from thinned stands, at times, surpassed that of unthinned stands of the forest. Individual tree size from thinned stands was ~twice that from unthinned areas in the second part of the planning period, offsetting the expected decline in piece size after the era of harvest of natural forests.

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“…Thinning and density control of forests has been used in many parts of the world to increase the flow of valuable forest products (e.g., Bergh et al 2005;Fox et al 2007;Gizachew and Brunner 2011;Allen and Burkhart 2018) but have not been widely applied on the public forests of Western Canada (Weetman 2002;Griess et al 2019). The reason for this stems not only from policy barriers (Pinno et al 2021), but also from managers' uncertainty in volume benefits of thinning, especially during this transitional era of taking stands from basic reforestation to more intensively managed systems (Bell et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thinning to meet sawlog objectives at shorter rotation in lodgepole pine stands

2022

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We modelled how pre-commercial and commercial thinning affects development of merchantable timber, specifically large sawlogs (> 20 cm diameter), on various site qualities and at different harvest ages. Data from juvenile permanent sample plots from post-harvest regenerated lodgepole pine stands in Alberta were projected using the Mixedwood Growth Model (MGM 21). Pre-commercial thinning (PCT) and different levels of commercial thinning (CT) with PCT were assessed on stands of good, medium and fair site quality. Results show site quality alone had the greatest impact on merchantable yields with good sites producing ~1.5 times the yield of medium and ~4.3 times that of the fair sites. Moderate thinning on good sites produced a greater quantity of large sawlogs (> 20 cm diameter) and their associated volume over unthinned stands than that on medium or fair sites, though thinning positively influenced total yield on these sites as well. On good sites, at age 50, CT treatments produced about ~50 m3/ha more volume of large sawlogs (> 20 cm) than the control; such gain drops to 18 m3/ha on medium sites. In addition, mean annual increment culminated earlier on good sites, also enabling earlier harvest.

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Mitigating midterm timber supply shortage using commercial thinning operations. A case study from British Columbia, Canada

Cited by 8 publications

References 18 publications

Thinning Increases Individual Tree Growth While Reducing the Growth Heterogeneity of Lodgepole Pine

Thinning Increases Individual Tree Growth While Reducing the Growth Heterogeneity of Lodgepole Pine

Intensive management increases flexibility in managing wood supply

Thinning to meet sawlog objectives at shorter rotation in lodgepole pine stands

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