Predicted and observed sugar maple mortality in relation to site quality indicators

Abstract

In response to high mortality rates after selection cutting, the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources developed a new tree classification system, named MSCR, to better identify trees with high mortality probabilities. The main objective of this article was to verify whether sugar maple mortality is more abundant on poor quality sites than on rich quality sites using (1) sample plots, measured only once, in which mortality is predicted using MSCR, and (2) remeasured sample plots that provide a real cumulative 10-year mortality assessment. The results presented show that sugar maple predicted mortality (based on MSCR) is greater on good sites than on bad sites. This result is in contradiction with our 10-year mortality results and the literature. Combining strong components of MSCR with those of other systems described in the literature, we put forward the conceptual basis for a new classification system for the northern hardwoods. Copyright © 2007 by the Society of American Foresters.