A Landowner's Guide to Selling Standing Timber - the Ontario ...

A LANDOWNER’S GUIDE TO SELLING STANDING TIMBERopenings in the canopy to start growing. Shade-intolerantspecies like white birch or poplar are rarely found in theforest understory. These intolerant species becomeestablished by seed and grow to dominate the site after amajor disturbance such as “heavy” cutting or wildfire.For some species, regeneration can be accomplished on thesite by one tree-cutting operation. For instance, shadetolerantspecies like sugar maple can establish and becomevigorous advance regeneration under a closed forest canopywithout intervention, and will develop once an opening inthe canopy is created. The silvicultural system used tomanage shade tolerant species is the selection system.Other species with intermediate shade tolerance, like redoak and white pine, require several cutting operations toensure successful regeneration. The first cutting operationis used to create small canopy openings, which will providethe conditions for establishment of vigorous regeneration.Sometimes the regeneration may be present, but it isdormant – it needs more light to stimulate growth.Subsequent cuts are then used to release the seedlingsand allow them to grow into the dominant trees in thewoodlot. The management system used to manage midshadetolerant species is the uniform shelterwood system.Table #8 provides additional information on regenerationstrategies for a number of the major tree species foundgrowing in woodlots in southcentral Ontario.Choosing a Silvicultural SystemHarvesting or silvicultural systems can be generallycategorized as either an “uneven-aged” or “even-aged”system and are named after the method of the harvestingsystem used. An uneven-aged woodlot will contain trees ina wide range of ages and sizes. Normally, there are atleast three distinct age classes present within the stand.Shade-tolerant species, such as sugar maple, beech andhemlock are most suited to being managed under thissystem. An even-aged stand is comprised of trees havingno, or relatively small, differences in age (i.e., generallywithin a 20-year range). This system is most useful in themanagement of shade-intolerant species such as whitebirch, poplar and red pine.By selecting the most appropriate silvicultural system, youcan take advantage of the different shade tolerance oftrees – thereby modifying the regeneration required tomeet your silvicultural objectives. The three majorsilvicultural systems used in southcentral Ontario aredescribed as follows:1. Uniform Shelterwood SilvicultureSystem – Even-agedManagement SystemThe shelterwood system is the removal of all merchantabletrees from a mature stand of timber in two or more partialharvest operations over a 20- to 40-year period thatusually results in an even-aged stand. The purpose of thissystem is to provide light conditions necessary to allow theestablishment of natural regeneration and to grow treespecies which are moderately tolerant of shade such as redoak and white pine. Once the regeneration objectives havebeen met, the overstory is removed in stages, allowing forthe further development of an even-aged forest in theopen-light conditions to which these species are adapted.48