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Browse subject: silviculture
Number of records: 326

Glossary of Forestry Terms | Ministry of Forests : Government of British Columbia
About this Resource: The Ministry of Forests (Government of British Columbia) has posted this dictionary of forestry related terminology. It is accessed through a "first letter" jump index. Some of the definitions contain hypertext links both to other definitions and to external related sources. Definitions are a compilation of general terms used by staff within the Ministry of Forests for reports, brochures and correspondence. The glossary is intended for staff, students, the general public and interest groups; the terms are used in British Columbia. A bibliography of sources can be consulted; these form the basis for the product. The link also includes definitions of forestry-related acronomys and initialisms.

Silvics of North America [Agriculture Handbook 654]
About this Resource: The silvical characteristics of about 200 forest tree species and varieties are described. Most are native to the 50 United States and Puerto Rico, but a few are introduced and naturalized. Information on habitat, life history, and genetics is given for 15 genera, 63 species, and 20 varieties of conifers and for 58 genera, 128 species, and 6 varieties of hardwoods. These represent most of the commercially important trees of the United States and Canada and some of those from Mexico and the Caribbean Islands, making this a reference for virtually all of North America. A special feature of this edition is the inclusion of 19 tropical and subtropical species. These additions are native and introduced trees of the southern border of the United States from Florida to Texas and California, and also from Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

Northern Forestry Centre
About this Resource: The Northern Forestry Centre carries out federal forest research and policy development in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Their website provides information on their ongoing research subject areas. These include: biodiversity, climate change, ecology, entomology, forest fires, landscape management, pathology, silviculture, and socio-economics. They also provide information about related funding programs, policies, and publications.

Forestry Images: The Source for Forest Health, Natural Resources and Silviculture Images
About this Resource: Forestry Images provides an archive of images related to forest health and silviculture, with particular emphasis on educational applications. The image categories are: Insects; Diseases; Other Damage Agents; Trees; Understory and Rangeland Plants; Silvicultural Practices; Wildlife; and People, Places, and Scenes.

'Quality' silviculture: everybody agree, but it is really applied?
About this Resource: Some comments are made on the application of closed-to-nature silviculture in Italy.

A book on the silviculture of protection forests on the Alps
About this Resource: A comment is made on a new book addressing important issues related to the silviculture of protection forests on the Alps. The book is written in Italian.

Silvicultural systems design with emphasis on the forest canopy
About this Resource: Silvicultural systems design with emphasis on the forest canopy

Water quality impacts associated with converting farmland and forests to turfgrass.
About this Resource: Three to four hundred new or renovated turfgrass systems are constructed in the U.S. each year. Many of these systems (golf courses, city parks, and residential and institutional lawns) are constructed in agricultural and silvicultural environments. However, knowledge of the water quality impact in transitioning from an agricultural or silvicultural landscape to a turfgrass landscape is at best limited. Using the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) water quality model, 99-year simulations for three locations were completed for a continuous corn (Zea mays L.) agricultural rotation (AGR), a forested environment (FST), a golf course built in a previously agricultural setting (AGR-G), and a golf course constructed in a previously forested (FST-G) setting. Hydrologic, nitrate-nitrogen, and pesticide (2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) impacts were evaluated. The hydrologic balance associated with AGR was significantly different from those for AGR-G, FST-G, and FST. Transition from FST to FST-G increased the loading and risk potential of surface runoff losses for both nitrate and 2,4-D and significantly increased (alpha = 0.05) the potential for percolate losses of 2,4-D. Converting AGR to AGR-G significantly reduced the loading and risk potential for nitrate and 2,4-D losses. However, the addition of housing developments and increased impervious areas, which generally follow turfgrass land developments, were not considered, so the actual risk potential is probably higher than shown with this model. In addition to the impacts assessed, this study shows the SWAT model and associated simulation and analysis strategy to be a useful tool in evaluating risk assessments associated with land use conversions.

Agroforestry Notes
About this Resource: This site features the National Agroforestry Center's newsletter, Agroforestry Notes. Through this site users can access notes that are categorized under the following categories: general, alley cropping, forest farming, riparian, silvopasture windbreaks, and special applications.

British Columbia Forest Service Research Branch
About this Resource: The Home Page link for the Ministry of Forests (British Columbia, Canada). Features publications, software and project information on a variety of forestry and environmental topics: biometrics, climate, growth and yields, fire ecology, silviculture, stand management, wildlife habitat. Describes the Branch's mission and history. Offers a link into the Library.

Long-term research at the USDA Forest Service's experimental forests and ranges
About this Resource: The network of experimental forests and ranges administered by the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service consists of 77 properties that are representative of most forest cover types and many ecological regions in the nation. Established as early as 1908, these sites maintain exceptional, long-term databases on environmental dynamics and biotic responses. Early research at these sites focused on silviculture, ecosystem restoration, and watershed management. Over time, many of the properties have evolved into a functional network of ecological observatories through common large-scale, long-term experiments and other approaches. Collaboration with other institutions and research programs fosters intersite research and common procedures for managing and sharing data. Much current research in this network focuses on global change and interdisciplinary ecosystem studies at local to global scales. With this experience in developing networks and compiling records of environmental history, the experimental forests and ranges network can contribute greatly to formation of new networks of environmental observatories.

A nice textbook of silviculture published in Spain
About this Resource: A comprehensive textbook of regional and functional silviculture, recently published in Spain by R. Serrada, G. Montero and J. A. Reque (eds.), is presented here as a very useful reference text for all the people who is interested in the management of Mediterranean forests.

The final motion from the third Italian national congress of silviculture
About this Resource: We report here the final motion of the third national congress of silviculture for the conservation and improvement of Italian forests, that was recently held in Taormina (Sicily).

Alabama Forestry Commission
About this Resource: The Alabama Forestry Commission website contains the commission's advisories on good silvicultural management and practices, along with information regarding implementation, as well as information about the AFC's organization and mandates, a list of publications available via on-line ordering, and links to other sites on forestry.

Glossary for Agroforestry
About this Resource: The Glossary for Agroforestry contains terms relating to agroforestry organized alphabetically. Clicking on a letter of the alphabet leads to all the terms in the glossary that begin with that letter. The website provides a link to a library with factsheets, publications, and newsletters. There is also information about the Eastern Arc Mountains and country profiles of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Africa.

Forest Carbon Management in the United States--1600-2100
About this Resource: This paper reviews the effects of past forest management on carbon stocks in the United States, and the challenges for managing forest carbon resources in the 21st century. Forests in the United States were in approximate carbon balance with the atmosphere from 1600-1800. Utilization and land clearing caused a large pulse of forest carbon emissions during the 19th century, followed by regrowth and net forest carbon sequestration in the 20th century. Recent data and knowledge of the general behavior of forests after disturbance suggest that the rate of forest carbon sequestration is declining. A goal of an additional 100 to 200 Tg C/yr of forest carbon sequestration is achievable, but would require investment in inventory and monitoring, development of technology and practices, and assistance for land managers.

Graphic Aids to Evaluation of Plantation Management Alternatives Involving Survival and Height Growth
About this Resource: Many forest managers are faced with decisions as to whether to invest, or how much to invest, in site preparation or other promising cultural treatments (some so recently introduced that their effects upon merchantable yields cannot be determined for many years). Such decision making can be aided by estimating how much survival or growth must be increased to recoup, with interest, the cost of the treatment. This paper presents graphically such information for planted slash pine under various combinations of treatment costs, site indices, and survival. The paper explains how similar graphs can be constructed for any timber species, provided tables are available that present merchantable yields by site index and number of trees per acre.

Obituary: Prof. A. de Philippis
About this Resource: On the 6th of April 2002 prof. Alessandro De Philippis passed away in Firenze. Born in 1908 he graduated in Agriculture in 1930 and in 1931 was appointed Researcher at the Research Station for Silviculture in Firenze where he was active until 1942. In the same year he became Professor of Forest Ecology and Silviculture at the University of Firenze where he taught until 1979. The Accademia Italiana di Scienze Forestali elected him as President in 1980 and he hold the post until 1992. De Philippis developed research mainly on forestry problems of the Mediterranean area: ecology of spontaneous and exotic (especially Eucalipts) tree species, climate, planting methods. His large scientific production deals with silvicultural systems, plantations, ecology, genetics, conservation, wood production, has been since the beginning clearly aimed at giving support to the implementation of a silviculture ecologically oriented in the Mediterranean area. He gave a precious conceptual contribution to clarify the connections between forestry and environmental problems and therefore the position of silviculture in the modern multiple use forestry.

Weak basis for “systemic” silviculture
About this Resource: An analysis is presented of the ecological basis of the so-called “selvicoltura sistemica” (systemic silviculture). Systemic silviculture implies an “a-structured forest”: the meaning of this particular condition is discussed in the paper, exploring the different possible interpretations and thus demonstrating that an “a-structured” forest can not be observed in nature. The silvicultural method proposed therefore seems to have a fragile ecological basis moving it away from a close-to-nature forest management approach, which is currently believed to be the most promising one for achieving forests that provide multiple goods and services.

Agroforestry Learning Communities in the Northeast
About this Resource: This website provides information on agroforestry in the Northeast United States. The site contains information on crops, forest farming, small farms, and crop tree management. Links to agroforestry related sites are also provided.

Northern White-Cedar Ecology and Silviculture in the Northeastern United States and Southeastern Canada: A Synthesis of Knowledge.
About this Resource: Sustainability of the northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.) resource is a concern in many regions throughout its range because of regeneration failures, difficulty recruiting seedlings into sapling and pole classes, and harvesting levels that exceed growth. Management confusion has resulted from the scarcity of research on northern white-cedar ecology and silviculture, particularly because northern white-cedar is an anomalous tree species. This article synthesizes recent and historical northern white-cedar literature, with a focus on ecology, regeneration, cedar-wildlife interactions, and silviculture. Although a number of past studies have produced contradictory findings, some generalizations of use to the practitioner can be made: northern white-cedar is of small stature, slow growing, decay prone except on cliff sites, and found in both early- and late-successional stands. Northern white-cedar appears to be a highly variable species that can adapt to a wide range of environmental stresses. Because management of this resource has proven difficult, northern white-cedar silvicultural guidelines are needed throughout its range.

Streamflow Modification Through Management of Eastern Forests
About this Resource: Protection of the water resource was a primary objective in establishing the National Forest System in America, and improving quantity, quality, and timing of streamflow is an important objective of forest management in certain regions of the United States.Effective management of the forest for increased streamflow presupposes that impact of various management practices on water yield can be predicted, but prediction equations do not exist for most regions.

Amphibian distributions in riparian and upslope areas and their habitat associations on managed forest landscapes in the Oregon Coast Range
About this Resource: Over the past 50 years, forested landscapes of the Pacific Northwest have become increasingly patchy, dominated by early successional forests. Several amphibian species associated with forested headwater systems have emerged as management concerns, especially after clearcutting. Given that headwater streams comprise a large portion of the length of flowing waterways in western Oregon forests, there is a need to better understand how forest management affects headwater forest taxa and their habitats. Mitigation strategies include alternatives to clearcutting, such as harvests that remove only part of the canopy and maintenance of riparian buffer strips. Our study investigates effects of upland forest thinning coupled with riparian buffer treatments on riparian and upland headwater forest amphibians, habitat attributes, and species-habitat associations. Amphibian captures and habitat variables were examined 5-6 years post-thinning within forest stands subject to streamside-retention buffers and variable-width buffers, as well as unthinned reference stands. We found no treatments effects, however, our results suggest that ground surface conditions (e.g., amount of rocky or fine substrate) play a role in determining the response of riparian and upland amphibians to forest thinning along headwater streams. Distance from stream was associated with amphibian abundance, hence retention of riparian buffers is likely important in maintaining microclimates and microhabitats needed for amphibians and other taxa. Moderate thinning and preservation of conditions in riparian and nearby upland areas by way of variable-width and streamside-retention buffers may be sufficient to maintain suitable habitat and microclimatic conditions vital to amphibian assemblages in managed headwater forests.

Naturally Seeded versus Planted Ponderosa Pine Seedlings in Group-Selection Openings.
About this Resource: The purpose of this article was to determine whether natural regeneration or planted seedlings should be used in group-selection openings. The answer depends on the survival and growth rate of both types of seedlings, and that could depend on the size of the openings and the effect of trees on their edge. In this side-by-side study, the natural pine seedlings originated from the 1988 seed crop and the 1-0 nursery-grown seedlings were outplanted in spring 1989. Openings ranged from 0.01 to 0.65 ha. The plant community consisted of many species of shrubs, forbs, and grasses with manzanita having the highest density and greatest development. After 9 years, manzanita had an average density of 13,870 plants/ha, 2,050 m2/ha of foliar cover, and was 125 cm tall. From 1990 to 1997, planted ponderosa pine seedlings were taller (P < 0.05) than natural seedlings, and from 1995 to 1997, mean stem diameter at 30 cm of planted seedlings was larger than natural counterparts (P < 0.05). Development for 1 year in the nursery apparently gave the planted seedlings a growth advantage over the natural seedlings. For natural seedlings, distance from opening edge had little effect on pine height or diameter growth regardless of opening size. Planted seedlings, however, appeared to increase in height and diameter growth with both opening size and distance from edge.

Agroforestry in British Columbia
About this Resource: This website from the Government of British Columbia gives people information about different aspects of agroforestry in British Columbia. There is information on finances, industry, and government as well as fact sheets and publications.

Non-timber Forest Products and Agroforestry
About this Resource: This website offers users access to many non-timber forest products and agroforestry websites. There are links to basic information about forests as well as articles and resources about more specific topics.

agroforestry.net
About this Resource: Agroforestry Net, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing educational resources about agroforestry, trees, and sustainable stewardship of land and water. The site contains current project information, publications, and links to other resources on the web.

The diffusion of Norway spruce in the beechwoods of
About this Resource: During the last decades, in the previously coppiced beechwoods of "Dolomiti Bellunesi" National Park, an unprecedented diffusion of Norway spruce occurred; possible silvicultural options to cope with this new condition are outlined here.

Silviculture within protected areas: forest utilizations in the National Park
About this Resource: The "Dolomiti Bellunesi"* National Park extends over 31150 ha, of which about 15700 ha are woodland. About 10000 ha are of direct silvicultural interest. According to the Veneto Regional Act no. 25/1997, the Park Authority has approved the resolution no. 116/1997 providing for the administrative procedures regulating the allowed silvicultural interventions, which refer to cuts of less than 100 m within high forest stands and to cuts of less than 2.5 ha within coppice stands. The National Forest Service is in charge of the advisory technical support to the landowners and of the control of the woodlot cuts. According to the adopted rules, silvicultural interventions can meet the requirements of both timber production and environmental protection. This case study demonstrates that silviculture may be suitably applied even in areas designated for nature conservation, like the considered National Park.

What kind of silviculture?
About this Resource: This editorial stresses the need for a kind of silviculture that could address properly the profound changes in the wood market determined by the globalization of the economy and the most stringent environmental issues.

Hurray to silviculture!
About this Resource: The central role of silviculture among forest sciences is recognized by the title and contents of Italian foresters' plenary congress, which is going to be held in Taormina this October.

The ten-years anniversary of SISEF: its history and congresses
About this Resource: The ten-years history of the Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology is briefly reconstructed with special reference to its plenary congresses.

The fifth SISEF national congress
About this Resource: The fifth national congress of the Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology (SISEF) has been held in Grugliasco (Torino) between 27 and 30 September 2005; here, a picture of congress "numbers" and a comparison with previous SISEF congress is provided.

Women and Agroforestry: A Human Ecology Approach to Understanding The Needs and Priorities of Women Farmers in Africa
About this Resource: This study examined rural Ugandan women’s lives to discover reasons why they may or may not practice agroforestry. These women are responsible for the triple roles of reproduction, production and community maintenance work, all carried out within the context of a gendered social environment. From the perspective of the social manifestations of gender, six key factors were identified. The findings were used to create a theoretical model of the interaction between rural women’s lives and agroforestry systems. The model shows that agroforestry is not only a biophysical farming system; There is a human component in that interacts with other components to determine the success or failure of an agroforestry initiative. The model can be used to identify and understand the human component of the agroforestry system on an individual and community level.

JOINT MODELING AND SIMULATION OF AUTOCORRELATED NON-NORMAL TIME SERIES: AN APPLICATION TO RISK AND RETURN ANALYSIS
About this Resource: This study presents a technique that can jointly model and simulate the expected values, variances, and covariances of sets of correlated time-series dependent variables that are autocorrelated and non-normal (right or left skewed and/or kurtotic). It illustrates the method by applying it to risk analysis of diversified tropical agroforestry systems.

Bad surprise while looking at the reform of “laurea magistrale” in Forestry and Environmental Sciences in the Italian University
About this Resource: The authors report the great surprise on the recent reform of "laurea magistrale" in Forestry and Environmental Sciences in the Italian University, that does not take into account at all some fundamental disciplines like silviculture and forest management.

Forest Practices Code Guidebooks | Ministry of Forests - Government of British Columbia
About this Resource: The Ministry of Forests (Government of British Columbia) provides a series of practical forestry related guidebooks. Offerings are categorized: bark beetle management; biodiversity; boundary marking; channel assessment procedures;community watersheds; defoliator management; and dwarf mistletoe management. There are guidebooks for specific forest regions; the rest involve: fish streams; forest development; forest roads; generic forest health; wildlife management; landscape units; terminal weevils; pine stem rust; pruning; riparian management; root disease management; seed and vegetative material; silviculture prescription; soil conservation; soil rehabilitation; stand management; trails; tree wounding and decay; visual imapct assessment and watershed assessment.

Forestry Images : Forest Health, Natural Resources & Silviculture Images
About this Resource: A link to over 22,000 digital images devoted to forestry, natural resources, silviculture, incluing: forest pests, trees, understory and rangeland plants, wildlife, people, places and scenes. A substantial number of photos are public sector images; the downloading and use of which simply requires a registration. Availability results from a joint project involving The Bugwood Network, USDA's Forest Service, and the University of Georgia (engaging the Warnell School of Forest Resources and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences).

Training course in silviculture: a useful comparison among expert group people
About this Resource: The results are presented of a training course in silviculture performed in experimental areas located in oak and beech woods in Basilicata (Southern Italy). In particular, the different choices made, in terms of thinning, by different groups of experts who worked independently in these areas are quantitatively summarized and discussed.

ECONOMICS OF AGROFORESTRY PRODUCTION IN IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE
About this Resource: A dynamic optimization model for agroforestry management is developed where tree biomass and soil salinity evolve over time in response to harvests and irrigation water quantity and quality. The model is applied to agroforestry production in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Optimal water applications are at first increasing in soil salinity, then decreasing, while the harvest decision is relatively robust to changes in most of the underlying economic and physical parameters. Drainwater reuse for agroforestry production also appears promising: both net reuse volumes and the implied net returns to agroforestry are substantial.

Institute for Commercial Forestry Research
About this Resource: A privately funded forestry research institute, the Institute for Commercial Forestry Research (ICFR) seeks to contrbute the global competitiveness of the Institute's sponsors. The Institute's main ares of expertise is in sustainable plantation silviculture. Website features includes a web search engine; staff information; an events calendar and relevant external links.

ON THE OPTIMAL DEPLETION OF OLD-GROWTH FORESTS AND THE PRESERVATION OF WILDERNESS
About this Resource: The problem of optimal depletion of old-growth forests and establishment of plantations is explored. The old-growth has value for the timber products it contains and the wilderness services it provides if left unharvested. The optimal amount of wilderness preserved in the steady-state is chararcterized and found to increase with increased interest rates and decreased cost of production. The wilderness preserve is largest when silvicultural effort is utilized optimally in plantations. The problem of small initial stock sizes is investigated.

Oxford Forestry Institute
About this Resource: The institute provides forestry education, training, research, and advisory services. The institute focuses on research into forestry issues in the areas of ecology, silviculture, sustainable management and biodiversity. The site discusses the activities of the institute and highlights institute publications and databases. The site provides links to sites of related interest including the University of Oxford.

Large-scale interdisciplinary experiments inform current and future forestry management options in the U.S. Pacific Northwest
About this Resource: Over the last 20 years, changing public values and increased ecological understanding have led to a paradigm shift in forestry from timber management to sustainable ecosystem management on U.S. federal lands. Forest managers are now seeking alternative management approaches that simultaneously meet socio-cultural, ecological and economic goals. Consequently, many field experiments have become increasingly interdisciplinary and larger in scale or scope. Individually and collectively, these studies in western Washington and Oregon represent major investments by research and land management organizations to enhance the science and understanding for sustainable forest management under increasing public scrutiny and demands for safeguarding healthy environments, conserving biological diversity and providing some level of economic prosperity. They also help to facilitate the transfer of scientific results into practical applications and to realize a more effective interface between science and policy. Questions addressed in this paper include (i) what do we mean by large-scale experiments, (ii) who is investing in these kinds of experiments and why, (iii) where is this information being put to use, and (iv) what does the future hold for these studies?

Pine Nutrition in the West Gulf Coastal Plain: A Status Report
About this Resource: Review of current literature establishes that forest fertilization is a proven, accepted management practice in limited areas of the South where lack of one or more mineral nutrients seriously curtails pine growth and where moderate additions of these nutrients markedly increase yields. In most of the South, however, and especially in the West Gulf Coastal Plain, general use will be deferred until amounts, kinds, and schedules of application can be reliably specified for individual soils.

Finnish Forest Research Institute
About this Resource: Established in 1917, the Finish Forest Research Institute (Metla) is a signifigant resource realtive to Finland's forests. The website accomodates both English and Finish speaking audiences. Metla provides organizational background for site visitors, with staff introductions and descriptions of research, experiments, services and products. The Institute is making its' publications accessible in full-text and there is an explanation of the METINFO services. A sitemap faciliates site navigation and Metla places emphasis on currency by highlighting news items. The Finnish Forest Research Institute reports to Finland's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The journal "Silva Fennica" is full-text accessible - beginning in 1998 (with pdf formatting), abstracts date back to 1994. The "Working Papers of the Finnish Research Institute" was launched in 2004.

Diversity-invasibility across an experimental disturbance gradient in Appalachian forests
About this Resource: Research examining the relationship between community diversity and invasions by nonnative species has raised new questions about the theory and management of biological invasions. Ecological theory predicts, and small-scale experiments confirm, lower levels of nonnative species invasion into species-rich compared to species-poor communities, but observational studies across a wider range of scales often report positive relationships between native and nonnative species richness. This paradox has been attributed to the scale dependency of diversity-invasibility relationships and to differences between experimental and observational studies. Disturbance is widely recognized as an important factor determining invasibility of communities, but few studies have investigated the relative and interactive roles of diversity and disturbance on nonnative species invasion. Here, we report how the relationship between native and nonnative plant species richness responded to an experimentally applied disturbance gradient (from no disturbance up to clearcut) in oak-dominated forests. We consider whether results are consistent with various explanations of diversity-invasibility relationships including biotic resistance, resource availability, and the potential effects of scale (1 m2 to 2 ha). We found no correlation between native and nonnative species richness before disturbance except at the largest spatial scale, but a positive relationship after disturbance across scales and levels of disturbance. Post-disturbance richness of both native and nonnative species was positively correlated with disturbance intensity and with variability of residual basal area of trees. These results suggest that more nonnative plants may invade species-rich communities compared to species-poor communities following disturbance.

Methodology for comparative analysis of sustainability in agroforestry systems
About this Resource: The work analyzes the political/institutional links and technological formats of agroforestry systems in the Caí and Taquari river valleys of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul in an effort to determine a value for their ability to endure: their sustainability. Sustainability indicators are created for the analysis of these systems. The indicator values will be used to create a Sustainability Index (SI) for each studied agroforestry system and to identify each system?s sustainability pattern. The different agroforestry systems will also be classified according to their structural characteristics. Analysis of the identified patterns and indexes will reveal the adequacy of the methodology employed and the consequence of each system?s institutional arrangement, technological format, and sustainability pattern. The agro forestry system that combines exotic forest species with watermelon and the system that combines native forest species with citrus fruit stand out as being most sustainable while, from an institutional perspective, those systems that were linked in an "associative" arrangement had the highest sustainability index values.

Silviculture that sustains: the nexus between silviculture, frequent prescribed fire, and conservation of biodiversity in longleaf pine forests of the southeastern United States
About this Resource: The longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) forest ecosystems of the US southeastern Coastal Plain, among the most biologically diverse ecosystems in North America, originally covered over 24 x 10(6) ha but now occupy less than 5% of their original extent. The key factor for sustaining their high levels of diversity is the frequent application of prescribed fire uninterrupted in time and space. Pine fuels, critical to application of fire and regulated by canopy distribution, provide the nexus between silviculture and fire management in this system. Typical silvicultural approaches for this type were, in large part, developed to maximize the establishment and growth of regeneration as well as growth and yield of timber, with much less regard to how those practices might influence the ability to sustain prescribed burning regimes or the associated biodiversity. However, many landholdings in the region now include conservation of biodiversity as a primary objective with sustained timber yield as an important but secondary goal. This review synthesizes the literature related to controls of biodiversity for longleaf pine ecosystems, and silvicultural approaches are compared in their ability to sustain natural disturbance such as fire and how closely they mimic the variation, patterns, and processes of natural disturbance regimes while allowing for regeneration.

Effects of gap size and within-gap position on seedlings establishment in silver fir stands
About this Resource: The conversion of pure conifer plantations into stands with heterogeneous structure and composition is a current silvicultural challenge in Italy. A silvicultural system aiming to the regeneration of natural forests by means of openings in the canopy cover is considered. The purposes of this study are: I) to evaluate if the creation of gaps is an appropriate way to transform homogeneous man-made stands of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) into naturally regenerated stands; II) to analyse the influence of micro-environmental conditions in gaps of different size on the recruitment and establishment of natural regeneration of forest tree species. After three growing seasons silver fir seedlings recruitment was greater in small gaps and in the central-southern positions where PAR was lower and the shading influence of ground vegetation less relevant. The most suitable gap size for silver fir regeneration, in the southern Apennine, is 200 (300) m2, D/H = 0.5 and anyway <0.75. The silvicultural treatment proposed seems to foster natural regeneration of silver fir and other broadleaves, enhancing the development of a multi-layered forest structure and fulfilling timber production objectives without compromising ecosystem management principles.