Developing Optimal Commercial Thinning Prescriptions: a New Graphical Approach
Developing Optimal Commercial Thinning Prescriptions: A New Graphical Approach KaDonna C. Randolph, USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis, Knoxville, TN 37919; and Robert S. Seymour and Robert G. Wagner, Department of Forest Ecosystem Science, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469. ABSTRACT: We describe an alternative approach to the traditional stand-density management diagrams and stocking guides for determining optimum commercial thinning prescriptions. Predictions from a stand-growth simulator are incorporated into multiple nomograms that graphically display postthinning responses of various financial and biological response variables (mean annual increment, piece size, final harvest cost, total wood cost, and net present value). A customized ArcView GIS computer interface (ThinME) displays multiple nomograms and serves as a tool for forest managers to balance a variety of competing objectives when developing commercial thinning prescriptions. ThinME provides a means to evaluate simultaneously three key questions about commercial thinning: (1) When should thinning occur? (2) How much should be removed? and (3) When should the final harvest occur, to satisfy a given set of management objectives? North. J. Appl. For. 22(3):170–174. Key Words: Nomogram, silvicultural system, financial analysis, FVS, simulation. Careful regulation of stand density through thinning North America in the late 1970s (Drew and Flewelling arguably distinguishes truly intensive management above 1979, Newton 1997a). SDMDs graphically depict the rela- all other silvicultural treatments (Smith et al. 1997), and in tionship between stand density and average tree size (either every important forest region, rigorously derived thinning quadratic mean dbh or stemwood volume, and frequently schedules are crucial in meeting production objectives. Typ- supplementary isolines depicting tree height; Newton ically thinnings are prescribed using stocking guides or 1997b, Wilson et al.
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