Can Selection Cutting Help Save the World's Forests?

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Can Selection Cutting Help Save the World’s Forests?

Selection cutting may very well be the only sensible way to eliminate some of the forestation in the world today. If you are unfamiliar with what selection cutting is, it is the practice of harvesting selected trees or groups of trees from a particular stand, namely in the Hardwood forests. There are four kinds of selection cutting practices used today: single tree selection, group selection, overstory removal and high grading. Whether or not all of these practices provide benefits to the forest environment is up for debate.

Single Tree Selection

Singletree selection is the most common type of selection cutting process used today. With this process an inventory is taken of any particular stand and single trees are marked for harvest depending on their diameter, basal area and q-ratio. The ultimate goal is to regulate the distribution of diameters that are sustainable. For a particular distribution to be sustainable, the forest must be able to regenerate all that was harvested before the next harvest. This is by far the best way to limit the damage to the forest environment.

Group Selection

Group selection is usually done in addition to singletree selection in some cases. In the group selection process, the objective is to allow shade intolerant species to regenerate. The debate with this type of selection cutting is that it definitely changes the moisture levels in the forest, which can be detrimental to some animal species.

Overstory Removal

Overstory removal is a variation of the process in which all large trees are removed and the smaller ones are left to regenerate. If done correctly, the forest crown cover is first thinned by approximately 75%, which provides growing space without significant changes to the forest floor or climate.

High-Grading

High grading is the most debated type of selection cutting. With this type of cutting, the highest quality trees are cut for profit, leaving the less desirable, poorly formed trees to regenerate the forest. The hottest part of this debate is that by leaving only the poorest trees behind, you will not have quality trees for decades after the cut. This type of cutting is not widely used because the effects are too great to the landscape.

Objectives of the Selection Cutting Process

Protection of forest soils
Improvement of wildlife environment
Increase of stem productivity
Encouragement of regeneration and species diversity
Improvement of visual appearance of plantations

In some studies that have been done in China, the short-term effects on the forest structure were minimal when low to medium intensities of single selection cutting were used. In fact, where low to medium intensities were used, the dominant species in any stand did not lose its leading status. However, when high to very high intensities were used the forest structure changed significantly and dominant species starting declining dramatically. Of all of the damage that was apparent, probably the most affected is the forest canopy.

Of all the arguments for the selection cutting process, probably the most favorable is the regeneration argument. The selection cutting process has been shown to assist in the renewal of healthy trees by ridding the forest of the sick or injured trees. By clearing large areas, it promotes the growth of pioneer species, which are not shade tolerant, and creates a healthy diverse forest.

Opposition to selection cutting, and cutting in general state that forest inhabitants such as amphibians and other floor dwelling animals will ultimately have to move elsewhere. By cutting trees, specifically with the group selection method, the forest floor becomes drier and animals such as salamanders and other amphibians thrive on moisture on the forest floor. And there is no doubt that any type of logging changes the moisture levels in forests.