Thinning

As pine stands grow and mature, individual trees compete for light, soil moisture, nutrients and space. Many trees are crowded by faster-growing neighbors and die. Thousands of pine seedlings populate a naturally seeded acre. In a plantation, usually 500 to 800 seedlings are planted. However, at maturity only 50 to 100 large-diameter, saw timber pine trees, greater than 20 inches, remain. More than 90 percent of the trees die. This mortality is a natural progressive process in the forest. As trees grow larger and because of limited amounts of space and resources, over time the environmental constraints limit the number of survivors in the stand.

Thinning is a forestry technique that mimics this natural process of mortality under the guidance of a trained professional.

• By applying cuts to immature stands, material that might otherwise die before rotation age can be used and growth can be concentrated on fewer, more desirable stems left in the stand.

• Thinning improves the conditions within the residual stand by providing increased growing space and availability of sunlight for individual trees.

• The increased growth, vigor and space available to these trees produce a healthier stand.

• The residual or remaining trees may be selected to meet any landowner objective such as wildlife, timber or aesthetics, but the result will ultimately reduce the time required for trees to reach a target diameter class. The decreased rotation length shortens the period of return on the landowner’s investment.

• If markets are available, some intermediate returns are possible from the thinned material removed.

In this section we will take a look at the following topics: