A Density Management Diagram for Pitch Pine to Illustrate Tradeoffs between Carbon and Wildfire Risk

Abstract

Pitch pine (Pinus rigida Mill.) can be found across a broad range in eastern North America but assumes local dominance only on poor soils in the northeastern United States. Contemporary management goals in the Northeast for areas dominated by pitch pine are focused on noncommercial benefits of forests, such as carbon density, reduced wildfire risk, habitat for rare species, and water provisioning. We present a density management diagram that empirically articulates the size-density limits of even-aged pitch pine stands. Included in the diagram are wildfire risk and carbon density, which are inversely related for most stand sizes. Maximum possible aboveground live tree carbon begins to decline at a quadratic mean diameter greater than 9 in., while crown fire risk remains high along the size-density limit until a quadratic mean diameter above 12 in. is achieved.