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Silvicultural Guide for Northern Hardwoods in the Northeast Updated

Looking east toward the Attitash Mountain Range from the Bartlett Experimental Forest, NH. Ken Dudzik, USDA Forest Service

Snapshot : This revision of the 1987 silvicultural guide updates and expands the silvicultural information on northern hardwoods. It provides additional information on wildlife habitat and managing mixed-wood and northern hardwood-oak stand. Principal Investigators(s) : Leak, William Yamasaki, Mariko Research Location : Connecticut; International; Maine; Massachusetts; New Hampshire; New York; Vermont; Rhode Island Research Station : Northern Research Station (NRS)  Year : 2014 Highlight ID : 618

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Summary

Forest Service scientists updated the 1987 silvicultural guide with the current information. The new guide differs appreciably from the older version, containing more supportive, long-term data and fewer rules. It offers a basis for well informed, on-the-ground decisions to meet a wide array of owner objectives, financial constraints, markets, sites, wildlife habitat and ecological considerations, and regulatory limitations. The prescription methodology is simpler and more field-oriented. This guide also includes an appendix of familiar tables and charts useful to practicing field foresters. Northern hardwood forest types can be managed as even- or uneven-aged stands using a variety of silvicultural practices. Silviculture provides methods to guide stand development by selecting the trees that make it to maturity to achieve both timber and wildlife objectives, along with creating desired stand structure. This publication supports managers in choosing the right methods to meet landowners' objectives consistent with stand conditions. The general approach offers low-cost, low-investment, and commercially viable options.

For further details log on website :
https://www.fs.fed.us/research/highlights/highlights_display.php?in_high_id=618