Title | Large-tree removal in a mixed-conifer forest halves productivity and increases white fir |
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Repository View: https://ucanr.edu/repository/a/?a=157080 Direct to File: https://ucanr.edu/repository/a/?get=157080 |
Abstract |
Removing all large trees without planning to replace them with either planted or naturally regenerated younger trees (i.e., high-grading) is widely thought to have negative consequences on a forest's productivity and species composition, but no previous studies in California had evaluated this assumption. To make such an evaluation, I measured productivity and canopy species composition shifts following the repeated removal of large trees and compared the results with those from two other basic forest harvest methods: thinning from below and single tree selection. Timber productivity was substantially lower with large-tree removal (0.65 thousand board feet per acre per year) than with the other methods (averaging 1.33 thousand board feet per acre per year), which included the no-harvest control, where yield was zero. Large-tree removal also resulted in more species change, with white fir increasing in the canopy and ponderosa pine decreasing. |
Author |
York, Robert A. : R.A. York is Research Stations Manager and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Forestry in the UC Center for Forestry and Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley.
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Publication Date | Jan 1, 2015 |
Date Added | Apr 30, 2015 |
Copyright | © The Regents of the University of California |
Copyright Year | 2015 |
Description |
A long-term study in the Sierra Nevada confirms the negative consequences of preferentially removing large trees. |
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