Trends and Silvicultural Significance of Upland Forest Successions in Southern New England

The problems encountered in the silvicultural treatment of southern New England forests are many. They result largely from the extremely diverse and complex conditions under which the forest is developed. Due to the glaciated nature of the region the soil character changes radically within relatively short distances. With changes in soil from place to place come minor changes of forest composition. One of the chief reasons for the problems which the silviculturalist encounters in this region is the large number of species which make up the stands. There are approximately thirty commercially important forest trees in southern New England. The complicated character of the stands makes a knowledge of their development indispensable to silvicultural practice. It is well known that forest vegetation is continually undergoing change; it is unstable. This means that it must be studied not as a static but as a dynamic entity; in other words, it must be considered from the point of view of its successional development