Transcript FOR 602 Lecture 1

Plantation Forestry: A Global Look
Forest Area: 3,952,025,000 ha
Woodland Area: 1,375,829,000 ha
Annual World Wood Removal
+
620,138,943 m3 wood
(USDA 2008)
+
620,138,943 m3 wood
(USDA 2008)
+
620,138,943 m3 wood
(USDA 2008)
620,138,943 m3 wood
(USDA 2008)
=
620,138,943 m3 wood
(USDA 2008)
3.1 billion
cubic meters
Total Wood Removal 2005: 3.1 billion cubic meters
Rank Country
Productive
Protective
Plantation
Plantation
Total
Percent
Plantation Plantation
million ha
1
China
28.5
2.8
31.4
15.9%
2
USA
17.1
0.0
17.1
5.6%
3
Russian Federation
11.9
5.1
17.0
2.1%
4
Brazil
5.4
0.0
5.4
1.1%
5
Sudan
4.7
0.7
5.4
8.0%
6
Indonesia
3.4
0.0
3.4
3.8%
7
Chile
2.7
0.0
2.7
16.5%
8
Thailand
2.0
1.1
3.1
21.3%
9
France
2.0
0.0
2.0
12.7%
10
Turkey
1.9
0.6
2.5
24.9%
The Gorilla in the Room
The Gorilla in the Room
Let’s Do The Math
• Current World Population: 6,785,564,850
• Forest/Woodland Area (ha): 5,327,854,000
• Forest/Woodland per Person
5,327,854,000
 0.79 ha
6,785,564,850
Role of Plantations: Benefits
• Plantations are < 4% of land base, but supply 35% of
global roundwood
• Increased productivity over natural forests
– e.g., loblolly pine (400% increase)
• Natural Stand: 42 tons per acre
• Intensively Managed Plantation: 210 tons per acre
• Restoration of Degraded Lands
Restoration of
Degraded Lands
Copper Basin Tennessee
Role of Plantations: Potential Tradeoffs
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Biodiversity
Environmental Services
Impact on Local Communities
Nutrient Depletion
Monocultures of Exotics
How can silviculture enhance productivity
to such a degree?
Tree Species
• Physiologically suited to establishing on exposed sites
and growing in competition
• Examples
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Pinus spp. (e.g., loblolly pine, radiata pine)
Eucalyptus spp.
Acacia spp.
Populus spp. (cottonwood, aspen, improved hybrids)
Douglas-fir
Norway spruce
Black locust
Tree Planting and Density Management
• Seed, seedling, or vegetative propagation
• Initial plantation spacing controls stand development and
growth rates
• Thinning can be used to alter growing space utilization
during rotation
Genetic Improvement
• Seed, Seedling, or Vegetative Propagation
• Traditional breeding programs
– “Natural” selection
– Improved seed orchards
• Hybrids and Clones
– Pitch x loblolly pine hybrid
– Hybrid poplar (cottonwood x Black Poplar)
• Biotechnology and clonal forestry
Loblolly Pine Improvement Program
• Open pollinated
– $45 to $70 per 1000 seedlings
• Mass controlled pollinated
– $140 to $230 per 1000 seedlings
• Varietal
– Produced through embryogenesis
– $400 per 1000 seedlings
FlexStand System
Site
Preparation
Competition Control
Fertilization
Loblolly Pine
Fundamental dissimilarities between naturally
regenerating stands and plantations
• Diversity in plant species composition
• Configuration of vertical layers and horizontal patterns of
vegetation
– Differences in branching patterns and lower uniformity in within-stand
tree height contribute to greater diversity in older natural stands
14 Year Old Loblolly Pine Plantation – 9 ft x 9ft Spacing
Habitat quality of any given plantation (any forest stand)
is defined by:
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Within-stand characteristics
Adjacent land-uses
Alternative land-use
Cumulative landscape-scale and regional-scale land-use
patterns
Plantation Establishment, Past, and
Alternative Land-Use
Scenarios
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Pine plantation replacing a mature stand of mixed
pine-hardwoods
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Pine plantation establishment on highly erodible
cropland
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Mature stand of mixed pine-hardwoods replaced by:
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Pine plantation
A housing development or Walmart
Reading:
M. J. Hartley. 2002. Rationale and methods for conserving
biodiversity in plantations forests. Forest Ecology and
Management 155:81-95.
• Management considerations
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Harvest
Species composition
Site-preparation
Tending
M. J. Hartley. 2002. Rationale and methods for conserving biodiversity
in plantations forests. Forest Ecology and Management 155:81-95.
• Harvest Considerations
– Retain legacy trees
• Dispersed individuals
• Aggregated clumps
• Linear strips
• Riparian buffer strips
– Size/shape
– Regeneration type
• Incorporate irregular shelterwood or selection systems
– Lengthen rotations
M. J. Hartley. 2002. Rationale and methods for conserving biodiversity
in plantations forests. Forest Ecology and Management 155:81-95.
• Species composition
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Favor natives over exotics
Spatially and temporally juxtapose exotic and native stands
Maintain genetic diversity
Mixed species stands
M. J. Hartley. 2002. Rationale and methods for conserving biodiversity
in plantations forests. Forest Ecology and Management 155:81-95.
• Site preparation
– Avoid intensive, soil disturbing site preparation
– Retain snags and course woody debris
– Prescribed fire to promote native understory species where
appropriate
M. J. Hartley. 2002. Rationale and methods for conserving biodiversity
in plantations forests. Forest Ecology and Management 155:81-95.
• Tending
– Thin some plantation early and heavy to promote diverse
understory
– Retain unthinned plantations
– Mosaic of thinned and unthinned plantations
– Avoid complete competition control with herbicides
Plantations and Diversity
A Regional Look at Wildlife Habitat in Southern Pine
Patterns of habitat and wildlife species use reflect
changes in stand development and composition
• Newly established plantations that support abundant herbaceous
vegetation will provide sustenance for species dependent on cover
provided by such vegetation
• 10 to 15 year-old pines furnishes a preferable combination of habitat
traits for species like white-tailed deer
• As the stand matures, habitat quality for these species linked with
herbaceous component as this vegetation eliminated by a woody
overstory
Recommendations for improving wildlife habitat associated with
even-aged, pine plantations in the southeastern United States
• Species Composition
– Diversify species
– Advocate mixed pine-hardwood stands
– Limit conversion of hardwood and pine/hardwood to plantations
– Maintain and restore hardwood-dominated stream corridors
– Encourage planting of the best genetically improved pine
seedling stock for faster growth
Recommendations for improving wildlife habitat associated with
even-aged, pine plantations in the southeastern United States
• Management
– Encourage precommercial and commercial thinning
– Increase flexibility in tree stocking rates
• Wider spaces within rows (e.g., 8 ft).
• Wider spacing between tree rows (e.g., 12 ft)
– Advocate prescribed burning of younger stands
– Encourage sawtimber-dominated stands
– Encourage partial harvest to establish multi-age plantations
– Emphasize low-intensity mechanical site preparation over use of
herbicides.
• When herbicides are needed, favor those products that have
minimal effect of plant species
Recommendations for improving wildlife habitat associated with
even-aged, pine plantations in the southeastern United States
Size and Configuration
• Limit plantation size to 50 ac or smaller
• Establish a ratio of 1 ac of permanent opening per 20 ac of trees
within plantations > 50 ac
• Establish irregular plantation boundaries
• Establish or preserve hardwood corridors and firebreaks-roads
planted to herbaceous cover to increase diversity
• Plant borders roads to legumes or wildlife food plots
• Establish soft borders between plantations and agricultural lands