English keywords: forest management; Norway spruce; Picea abies; yield; Finland; selection system; even-aged stands; selection cuttings; uneven-aged stands

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This article reviews experiments and practical experience of forest management by the selection system in Finland. In an experiment of 25-year duration the annual growth of uneven-aged Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) stands was only about 50% of the average annual yield of even-aged stands in normal rotation on the same site.

In Finland the selection system is applicable under exceptional conditions only, viz. In intensively managed park stands and, on the other hand, on very marginal sites, e.g. on peat bogs and mountains near the tree-line. Even normal silviculture, however, may include cuttings which somewhat resemble selection system, e.g. removal of standards or restoration of mismanaged forests.

The PDF includes a summary in English.

Mikola, E-mail: pm@mm.unknown

Category : Research note

article id 897, category Research note

Lars Lundqvist, Susanne Spreer, Christer Karlsson. (2013). Volume production in different silvicultural systems for 85 years in a mixed Picea abies–Pinus sylvestris forest in central Sweden. Silva Fennica vol. 47 no. 1 article id 897. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.897

Keywords: plantation; growth and yield; clear-cutting; silvicultural systems; seed trees; selection system; single-tree selection; diameter limit harvest

Abstract | Full text in HTML | Full text in PDF | Author Info

A long-term comparison of different silvicultural systems was established in 1923 in central Sweden, in an uneven-aged mixed Norway spruce–Scots pine forest (Picea abies (L.) Karst. – Pinus sylvestris L.) with about 85% spruce and 15% pine. The five treatments consisted of two examples of even-aged management 1) clear-cutting followed by planting, and 2) seed tree regeneration, one uneven-aged management 3) selection system, one exploiting treatment 4) diameter limit cut, and 5) one untreated control plot. Each treatment plot was 1 ha, 100 m × 100 m. The plots were measured and managed at irregular intervals, ranging from 7 to 15 years. In 2007–2008 the even-aged treatments and the diameter limit cut were repeated and a new rotation started. Mean annual volume increment during the whole observation period differed widely between the treatments, partly because of differences in species composition over time, with treatment clear-cutting followed by planting at the top, and the control at the bottom. Treatment selection system gave only about 60% of planting, but this was probably largely an effect of too small growing stock during the first roughly 50 years. When the growing stock was increased, periodic annual volume increment increased to about 80% of the mean annual volume increment in the even-aged, planted plot.

Lundqvist, Deparment of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-901 83 Umeå, Sweden E-mail: lars.lundqvist@slu.se
Spreer, Sveaskog Förvaltnings AB, Ljusdal, Sweden E-mail: susanne.spreer@sveaskog.se
Karlsson, Field Research Unit, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Siljansfors, Sweden E-mail: christer.karlsson@slu.se

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