TIMBER STAND IMPROVEMENT 



Timber Stand Improvement includes all operations 

 undertaken to improve the condition and thrift of forest 

 trees. However, the two most widely used methods of 

 timber stand improvement are thinning and pruning. 

 Many forest stands in Montana are so overcrowded* and 

 stagnated that virtually no trees will reach merchantable 

 size, even for pulpwood. If they had been thinned at 

 an early age some merchantable products may now have 

 been removed. 



The effect of thinning is to concentrate growth 

 on fewer trees. This produces larger volumes of usable 

 wood --the re fore a more valuable stand. 



Assuming present values of timber will continue, 

 thinning can more than double harvest values on good 

 sites and can increase harvest values up to four times 

 on poor sites . Thinning does this by helping speed 

 nature's selection system* Under nature's system, 

 seedlings which have germinated are locked in a continuous 

 fight for growing space. The weaker trees are gradually 

 crowded out, but while being crowded out have slowed the 

 growth of the better trees. Thinning removes competition, 

 releasing the remaining trees to grow to a merchantable 



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