Stand structure differences resulting from post-harvest silviculture in boreal mixedwoods

Abstract

Under the Ontario Forest Accord, several parcels of land have recently been designated as protected areas reducing the area available for forest management. As a result, forestry companies will likely have to intensify timber production using post harvest silviculture on remaining industrial forestry land to yield the same volumes achieved from fewer operable hectares. I used a chronosequence approach (stands 15-57 yrs) to investigate the question: "Does post-harvest silviculture change forest composition and structural attributes at the stand level?" I sampled overstory, standing dead-wood components, and woody debris of forty-three upland mesic stands in the Gordon Cosens Forest, Kapuskasing, Ontario. Stands were selected to address potential differences in structural attributes resulting from three silvicultural intensities (harvest with no silviculture, harvest with planting and with herbicide tending, and harvest with site preparation, planting, and application of herbicide), across the chronosequence.