Forest inventories and growth models to examine management strategies for forests in transition

Abstract

For determining the amount and structure of the allowable cut in forests in transition (from even-aged to uneven-aged management) the assumptions of the usual formulas for calculating allowable cut no longer apply. In this situation, growth models applied to permanent sample inventories become an important planning tool. This is demonstrated at a forest management district in the Austrian part of the Bohemian Massif, where clearcutting was abandoned 40 years ago. The existing inventory is based on angle counts. The site mapping, performed there in 1963, is translated into the site factors used in the growth simulator PrognAus, using a sample of site assessments in the mapped site classes. The simulation results, for four different harvesting regimes over 80 years, are evaluated to find the most appropriate harvesting level.