EVALUATING LONG-TERM GROWTH AND YIELD IN UPPER GREAT LAKES REGION NORTHERN HARDWOODS CUTTING TRIALS

Common partial cutting management methods in Lake States hardwoods include both selection management and diameter-limit cuttings. Single-tree selection in particular is a widely prescribed silvicultural system in northern hardwoods and has an established history of use throughout the entire range of the forest type. Using data from two historic silvicultural studies, long-term comparison of single-tree selection methods and other partial cutting practices in northern hardwoods reveals that single-tree selection to higher residual basal areas, as widely applied in Great Lakes northern hardwood forests, is inferior using financial and volume yield criteria. Alternatives that remove more of the larger trees appear to increase regeneration and harvested tree quality over time, which in turn drives financial performance. However, treatments with extremely high volume removals perform poorly against all others and have few, if any, redeeming financial, silvicultural, or ecological qualities. As applied in the Lake States, most single-tree selection follows the Arbogast (1957) guide, and the implementation of alternatives to this may provide greater financial returns and higher average quality while also having implications on regeneration and long-term sustainability