Rehabilitating Disturbed Forests

Presented by Ralph D. Nyland, Ph.D., Distinguished Service Professor -- Silviculture, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY.

View the webinar at http://conservationwebinars.net to earn CEUs.

Participate to learn about key issues that challenge rehabilitation treatment of disturbed forests and alternatives for dealing with cutover stands.

This presentation will cover:

definitions of silviculture, forestry, and ecosystem management
restoration and rehabilitation in the context of silviculture
effects of timber harvesting on forests in the Northeast
some key characteristics of even-, uneven-, and two-aged stands
how exploitative cutting alters the condition of these stands (potential for future growth, residual tree quality, patchiness, and interference to regeneration)
some silvicultural options for dealing with exploited stands
multi-treatment strategies as a new approach in rehabilitation silviculture

The presentation includes information from assessment of timber harvesting and its effects in the Northeast, shows examples of key issues that challenge rehabilitation treatments, and describes some alternatives for dealing with cutover stands. Findings suggest that the patchiness of cutover stands and the limited amount to quality growing stock make a single-treatment approach inadequate in most cases. Instead, combining different silvicultural options into a multi-treatment strategy should result in a more favorable outcome.