Silviculture
Concepts and Applications
Third Edition
Silviculture: Concepts and Applications reflects a belief that all the tools of silviculture have a useful role in modern forestry. Through careful analysis and creative planning, foresters can address a wide array of commodity and nonmarket interests and opportunities while maintaining dynamic and resilient forests. A landowner’s needs, circumstances, and site conditions guide a silviculturist’s judgment and decision making in finding the best ways to integrate the biologic-ecologic, economic-financial, and managerial-administrative requirements at hand.
The Third Edition of this influential text provides a foundational basis for rigorous discussion of techniques. The inclusion of numerous real-world examples and balanced coverage of past and current practices broadens the concept of silviculture and the ways that managers can use it to address both traditional and emerging interests in forests. A thorough discussion of new and proven interpretations increasingly directs the attention of foresters toward the role silviculture plays in creating, maintaining, rehabilitating, and restoring forests that can sustain an expanding variety of ecosystem services.
“I appreciate that Waveland prints a quality, comprehensive silviculture textbook at a reasonable price.” — Paul Gagnon, Murray State University
“Excellent text only made better in this third edition. Useful not only for teaching/learning the discipline but also as a career-long reference.” — Edward Loewenstein, Auburn University
1. Silviculture as an Orderly Discipline
Silviculture and Its Place in Forestry / The Changing Context of Forestry / Planning at the Ecosystem Level / Silviculture Defined—An Art and a Science / What Silviculturists Do
2. The Silvicultural System
Disturbance and Functionality / The Silvicultural System as a Plan for Management / Comparison of Even- and Uneven-Aged Systems / Adjusting the Intensity of Management / The Art of Silviculture
3. Harvesting as a Tool of Silviculture
Timber Harvesting and Silviculture / Timber Harvesting Systems / Silvicultural Requirements of Logging / Practices to Prevent Environmental Pollution / Planning for Routine Harvesting
4. Concepts of Regeneration
Objectives of Forest Regeneration Practices / Ingredients for Success / High-Forest Regeration / Integrating Silvicultural Practice and Forest Tree Improvement / Use of Exotic Species
5. Planning for Artificial Regeneration
Tree Planting in Silviculture / Planning a Tree Planting Project / Field Assessment of Site Conditions / Kinds of Planting Stock / Organizing a Plantation / Getting Ready for the Planting
6. Site Preparation
Role and Scope of Site Preparation / Passive Site Preparation / Active Site Preparation / Mechanical Site Preparation / Using Herbicides in Site Preparation / Fire and Its Effects in Forests / Weighing the Alternatives
7. Nursery and Tree Planting Operations
Seed Selection and Handling / Seedling Production / Container Stock / Successful Outplanting of Bare-Root Stock / Some Special Considerations in Planting
8. Regeneration from Seed and Direct Seeding
Underlying Premise / Direct Seeding for Forest Regeneration / Examples of Direct Seeding
9. Regeneration Methods and Their Implications
Important Ecologic and Economic Factors / Regeneration Methods and Their Role in Silviculture / Some Regulatory Considerations in Silviculture / Even-Aged Stand Development / Some Patterns of Uneven-Aged Stand Development / Relationship to a Regeneration Strategy
10. Selection System and Its Application
The Character of Selection System / Characterizing Conditions in Selection System Stands / Defining a Residual Structure / Balanced Structures and Other Guides for Selection System / Enhancing Quality and Value
11. Uneven-Aged Regeneration Methods
The Role of a Regeneration Method in Selection System / The Concept of Single-Tree Selection Method / The Concept of Group Selection Method / Hybrid Uneven-Aged Methods
12. Growth and Development in Selection System Stands
Some Characteristics of Selection System Silviculture / Contrasts between Selective and Selection Cutting / Integrating Cutting Cycle Length, Residual Density, and Structure / The Nonmarket Value of Selection System Stands / Setting the Maximum Diameter for Noncommodity Objectives
13. Clearcutting
Clearcutting as a Regeneration Method / Effect on Environmental Conditions Near the Ground / Altering the Configuration of Clearcutting / Effects on Some Other Ecosystem Attributes / Site Preparation and Other Ancillary Treatments / Clearcutting with Artificial Regeneration / Values and Limitations of Clearcutting
14. Shelterwood and Seed-Tree Methods
A Rationale for Alternative Even-Aged Regeneration Methods / Shelterwood Method / Seed-Tree Method / Selecting Seed Trees for Shelterwood and Seed-Tree Cutting / Reserve (Irregular) Shelterwood Method / Strip- and Group-Shelterwood Methods / Removal Cutting and Seedling Damage / Site Preparation with Shelterwood and Seed-Tree Methods / Some Other Considerations with Shelterwood and Seed-Tree Methods
15. Early Stand Development
Even-Aged Community Establishment and Formation / Intermediate Treatments for Even-Aged Stands / Judging Successful Establishment
16. Release Treatments
Early Release Treatments / Weeding / Cleaning / Liberation / Some Broad Economic Considerations
17. Thinning and Its Effects on Stand Development
Some Dynamics of Even-Aged Stands / Crown Classes and Their Silvicultural Importance / Some Implications of Tree Aging / Production Functions to Model Even-Aged Stand Development / Stocking and Relative Density among Unmanaged Stands / Controlling Relative Density through Thinning
18. Methods of Thinning
Comparing Method and Intensity of Thinning / Low Thinning / Crown Thinning / Selection Thinning / Mechanical Thinning / Free Thinning / Selecting a Method and Controlling the Thinning
19. Thinning Regimes in the Even-Aged Silvicultural System
Characteristic Responses of Thinned Stands / Effects on Individual Tree Growth / Effects of Thinning on Stand Volume Production / Some Other Considerations
20. Managing Quality in Forest Stands
Marketing and Quality Factors in Silvicultural Planning and Operations / Determining Quality in Trees and Stands / Recognizing Product Quality in Standing Trees / Factors That Affect Quality in Trees and Stands / Pruning / Some Financial Considerations / Other Uses of Pruning
21. Stand Protection and Health Management
The Healthy Forest / Silviculture and Stand Health / Integrated Forest Health Management through Silviculture / Some Other Important Considerations with IFHM
22. Improvement, Salvage, and Sanitation Cuttings
Silvicultural Responses to Effects of Injurious Agents / The Role of Improvement Cutting / Assessing Opportunities for Improvement Cutting / Integrating Improvement into Other Treatments / Managing Cavities, Culls, and Dead Trees for Their Noncommodity Values / Salvage and Sanitation Cutting / Some Economic Considerations with Improvement and Salvage Cutting / Other Aspects of Improvement, Salvage, and Sanitation Cutting
23. Other Partial Cuttings
Deliberateness, Silviculture, and Conservation / Partial Cutting to Create Irregularly Aged Stands / Two-Aged Silviculture / Other Two-Storied Stands / Converting Even-Aged Stands / Some Partial Cutting Strategies to Promote Ecologic Diversity / Establishing and Maintaining Other Irregular Forest Stands / Some Implications of Irregular Silviculture
24. Exploitative Cutting and Stand Rehabilitation
Disturbances in Forest Ecosystems / Disturbance by Timber Harvesting / Options for Rehabilitating Cutover Stands / Other Factors Influencing Rehabilitation Treatments / Keeping Rehabilitation Cost-Neutral
25. Coppice Silviculture
The Role of Coppice Silviculture in Forest Stand Management / Coppice Methods Based on Stump Sprouting / Short- and Mini-Rotation Coppice Systems / Coppice Methods Based on Root Suckers / Setting Rotation Length in Coppice Systems / Advantages and Disadvantages of Simple Coppice Systems / Alternate Coppice Systems
26. Adjusting to Administrative Demands
Silviculture in Perspective / Administrative Considerations for Initial Planning / Taking an Ecosystem Approach / The Evolution of Thinking / Adapting to Change / Silviculture in Retrospect