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Impacts of Forest Management Activities on Selected Hardwood Wood Quality Attributes: a Review Bruce E

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Impacts of Forest Management Activities on Selected Hardwood Wood Quality Attributes: a Review Bruce E View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Digital Repository @ Iowa State University Natural Resource Ecology and Management Natural Resource Ecology and Management Publications 1-2004 Impacts of Forest Management Activities on Selected Hardwood Wood Quality Attributes: A Review Bruce E. Cutter University of Missouri Mark V. Coggeshall University of Missouri John E. Phelps Southern Illinois University Carbondale Douglas D. Stokke Iowa State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/nrem_pubs Part of the Forest Management Commons, and the Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons The ompc lete bibliographic information for this item can be found at https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ nrem_pubs/268. For information on how to cite this item, please visit http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ howtocite.html. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Natural Resource Ecology and Management at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Natural Resource Ecology and Management Publications by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Impacts of Forest Management Activities on Selected Hardwood Wood Quality Attributes: A Review Abstract Hardwoods are increasingly being viewed as an important raw material component of the forest products industry, and this has spurred awareness of the impact of forest management on tree and wood quality. The impacts of various forest management activities on tree and wood quality in hardwoods are presented from the standpoint of the activities themselves rather than that of the wood properties. These silvicultural activities include genetic manipulation, intensive culture, fertilization and/or irrigation, pruning, thinning, weed control, and prescribed fire. A broad literature cited section is included as an aid to future scientists. Keywords Hardwoods, wood quality, forest management, silviculture Disciplines Forest Management | Forest Sciences | Natural Resources Management and Policy Comments This article is published as Cutter, Bruce E., Mark V. Coggeshall, John E. Phelps, and Douglas D. Stokke. "Impacts of forest management activities on selected hardwood wood quality attributes: a review." Wood and fiber science 36, no. 1 (2007): 84-97. Posted with permission. This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/nrem_pubs/268 IMPACTS OF FOREST MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES ON SELECTED HARDWOOD WOOD QUALITY ATTRIBUTES: A REVIEW Bruce E. Cutter*² Professor of Forestry University of Missouri±Columbia 203 ABNR Columbia, MO 65211 Mark V. Coggeshall Research Analyst MU Center for Agroforestry University of Missouri±Columbia Columbia, MO 65211 John E. Phelps² Professor of Forestry Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL 62901 and Douglas D. Stokke² Assistant Professor Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011 (Received December 2002) ABSTRACT Hardwoods are increasingly being viewed as an important raw material component of the forest products industry, and this has spurred awareness of the impact of forest management on tree and wood quality. The impacts of various forest management activities on tree and wood quality in hard- woods are presented from the standpoint of the activities themselves rather than that of the wood properties. These silvicultural activities include genetic manipulation, intensive culture, fertilization and/or irrigation, pruning, thinning, weed control, and prescribed ®re. A broad literature cited section is included as an aid to future scientists. Keywords: Hardwoods, wood quality, forest management, silviculture. In the past several decades, considerable at- virens (D. Don) Endl.). However, the same tention has been devoted to measuring, manip- level of attention has not been paid to hard- ulating, and improving wood quality in several woods except perhaps for Populus and Euca- softwoods, notably Douglas-®r (Pseudotsuga lyptus on a global scale. At one time, the Unit- menziesii (Mirb.) Franco), the southern pines ed States Forest Service North Central Forest (Pinus spp.), and redwood (Sequoia semper- Experiment Station had a major research effort in wood quality of ®ne hardwoods (white ash, white oak, and black walnut), but this was * Corresponding author: Of®ce (573) 882-2744, e-mail: [email protected]. dropped in a reorganization. Purdue Univer- ² Member SWST. sity is now the home of the Hardwood Tree Wood and Fiber Science, 36(1), 2004, pp. 84±97 q 2004 by the Society of Wood Science and Technology Cutter et al.ÐHARDWOOD QUALITY RELATED TO FOREST MANAGEMENT 85 Improvement and Regeneration Center the National Design Speci®cation (Blanken- (HTIRC), a relatively new effort focusing on horn et al. 1999). genetic improvement of ®ne hardwoods The efforts in wood quality manipulation (Woeste and Michler 2000). The HTIRC is a can be broadly de®ned as whatever actions the partnership among state, federal, and private landowner undertakes that in¯uence the organizations and agencies. growth of the trees and/or the stand. In for- The increased emphasis being placed on estry, this falls under the broad aegis of sil- hardwood utilization requires that we focus on viculture. Silviculture is both an art and a sci- improving all aspects of hardwood growth and ence and has been de®ned as the art of apply- utilization. Luppold et al. (2002) noted that ing science to control forest stand quality (Ny- hardwood roundwood consumption has been land 2002). This includes no action as well increasing since the 1960s in all regions of the since, as we will see, failure to control weeds United States. In this paper we review efforts or to remove diseased trees or to thin will in- in wood quality improvement and manipula- ¯uence the growth of the stand just as much tion in (primarily) North American hard- as overt action does. One of the problems in woods. While the majority of the research cit- looking at the effects of forest management ed in this paper is post-1970, there were sev- activities on tree and wood quality is that all eral pioneering studies predating this that de- too often tree growth (diameter and/or height) serve special notice. These include the efforts is assumed to be a proxy for wood quality and of Benson H. Paul, USDA Forest Service Sil- speci®c measures of wood quality are left un- viculturist (Paul 1929 through 1963). measured. A study of the literature indicated that the WOOD QUALITY body of knowledge is lacking in many areas. Wood quality is measured by several param- While there have been many examples of eters whose importance varies from end-user guidebooks discussing hardwood stand man- to end-user. Briggs and Smith (1986) indicated agementÐUSDA General Technical Report that wood quality ``is a measure of aptness of NC-38 by Schlesinger and Funk (1977) or UK wood for a given use.'' Larson (1969) views Forestry Commission Handbook Number 9 by wood quality as a concept and further indi- Kerr and Evans (1993) as examplesÐfew, if cates that any, of these discuss wood quality. The index in Johnson et al.'s recent book on oak ecology . wood quality encompasses the whole of the wood, and silviculture lists neither tree nor wood and when certain characteristics are segregated for mea- quality (Johnson et al. 2002). There are some surement or evaluation, it must be recognized that the noteworthy exceptions to this, however. In the evaluation is arbitrary and the segregation arti®cial. Fourth Black Walnut Symposium, Phelps The characteristics or parameters Larson re- (1989) addressed the tree growth-wood quality ferred to might include cell length, density or relationship from the wood properties per- speci®c gravity, growth rate, earlywood-late- spective. Cutter et al. (1997) reviewed the im- wood ratio, heartwood color, etc. They may pact of management activities on walnut also include such items as lumber grade where growth and wood quality in the Fifth Black hardwood lumber is to be cut into smaller Walnut Symposium. Zhang et al. (1997) or- pieces to be remanufactured into furniture (as ganized a workshop on timber management an example). Until recently, strength had usu- and wood quality/end product value. Nepveu ally not been a concern in hardwood utiliza- (1999) led a workshop on modeling the rela- tion since the majority of the wood had been tionships between silviculture and wood qual- used for decorative veneers and furniture. Re- ity. cent research has resulted in the inclusion of In wood utilization texts, three general aspen, yellow-poplar, red oak, and maples in sources of variation in wood and wood prop- 86 WOOD AND FIBER SCIENCE, JANUARY 2004, V. 36(1) erties are listed: genetics, tree (cambial) age, munication). These efforts have been geared and environment (Panshin and de Zeeuw towards improved ®ber production for pulp 1980; Bowyer et al. 2003). Environmental fac- and paper usage and continue today. In recent tors are typically thought of as climate, soil years, willows (Salix spp.) have also received fertility, moisture, photoperiod, etc. However, considerable attention because of their in- forest management activities undertaken by creased growth potential (Volk et al. 2001) as the landowner constitute an environmental im- has river birch (Betula nigra L.) (Hicks et al. pact as well. Typical or traditional forest man- 1975). agement
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