Forest Sciences Commons^™

Implementing Complex Partial Harvests In Central Maine: Is Tree Marking Necessary?, Sam Grimm

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent trends in forest management regimes seek to strike a balance between a multitude of ecologic and economic values at multiple scales. Whether the objectives are traditional (timber production), or contemporary (ecological sustainability), the fundamental, practical question of “how” the forester implements a silvicultural prescription remains relatively unaddressed by research. Forest managers must consider: what good are carefully designed landscape plans and stand-level prescriptions if the treatments are not executed accurately? In northeastern North America, tree marking -- the simple designation of cut or leave trees to implement a given silvicultural prescription -- has declined, in favor of reliance on …