Efficient silvicultural practices for eastern hardwood management

Eastern hardwood forests are now managed to meet a wide range of objectives, resulting in the need for silvicultural alternatives that provide timber, wildlife, aesthetics, recreation, and other benefits. However, forest management practices must continue to be efficient in terms of profiting from current harvests, protecting the environment, and sustaining production of desired benefits in the future. This paper evaluates four major silvicultural practices used to manage eastern hardwoods: single-tree selection, group selection, two-age management, and even-age management. The analysis focuses on defining variations of these practices that can be applied economically in current markets, and that result in sustainable forests that can be managed economically in the future. In general, results indicated that in many cases current harvests can provide sufficient stumpage revenues to apply each of the practices evaluated. However, market conditions and changes in species composition can have a dramatic effect on the economic efficiency of future harvests.

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