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III. SILVICULTURAL PRACTICES IN MONTANA 

 Silviculture is an applied science concerned with the establishment, 

 growth and composition of forest communities for commodity output. 



As an applied science, silviculture is based upon fundamental natural 

 and social sciences. The immediate natural science foundation of silvi- 

 culture is the field of silvics, involving environmental factors con- 

 trolling the growth and development of individual tree species and the 

 forest as an ecological unit. Silviculture is also based on and influenced 

 by economics (supply and demand, cost effectiveness, etc.). For the 

 purposes of this report silvicultural practices include: 



(1) Forest harvestingand regeneration techniques (including 

 slash disposal ); 



(2) On-site road construction and maintenance; 



(3) Stand maintenance (thinning, use of pesticides, fertilization, 

 burning, etc. ). 



Theoretically, harvesting methods employed in a sulvi cultural system 



vary depending on a number of factors including: 



(1) Silvics or ecology of the species; 



(2) Site characteristics (steep slopes, erosion, potential, 

 etc. ); 



(3) Nature of the stand (even-aged, uneven-aged, maturity, 

 species diversity, insect damage, etc.); 



(4) Management objectives (desired regeneration; maintenance 

 of serai or climax species, etc.); 



(5) Economics; 



(6) Social constraints or desires; 



(7) Legal constraints. 



