A comparison of initial harvest results from four partial harvest systems at the Blue Heron Demonstration Forest

Abstract

Demonstration forests have been established across the northern hardwoods of the United States to assess the economic and environmental implications of partial harvest systems, such as single tree selection and diameter limit cutting. Single tree selection has been studied at several sites in the northern hardwoods of Canada, but there has not been a structured comparison of partial harvest systems within one site. We assessed the initial harvest results at the Blue Heron Demonstration Forest, in which four partial harvest systems – single tree selection (STS), financial maturity selection (FMS), diameter limit cutting (DLC), and crop tree release (CROP) – and a control treatment were implemented with multiple replicates within a typical northern hardwood forest in central Ontario. DLC harvested the most volume as well as basal area, followed closely by FMS. STS harvested the least basal area and volume and generated the lowest product values as well as the lowest stumpage revenue. However, STS did not harvest significantly more low vigour trees, nor did it significantly increase the proportion of basal area that is high vigour, suggesting that alternative partial harvest systems like FMS may achieve silvicultural objectives while yielding superior financial results over multiple cutting cycles.