Even-aged silviculture based on short-rotation clearcuts had severely altered boreal forests. Silvicultural alternatives (e.g. continuous cover or retention forestry) have the potential to restore and protect the habitats and functions of boreal forests. These alternatives are however often...

Branch diameter is an important aspect of wood quality, as lumber grades can be determined based on the maximum diameter of branches. Crown and branch development can be influenced by the environment surrounding the trees, and silvicultural interventions, which reduce stand density and increase the ...

In managed boreal forests, partial harvesting has been proposed to promote forest structural complexity and to therefore maintain associated biodiversity. However, there have been few studies identifying forest structures that should be maintained within the forest matrix, and fewer still on...

Understanding the magnitude and cause of variation in tree growth and forest productivity is central to sustainable forest management. Measurements of annual growth rings allow assessments of individual-tree, tree population, and forest ecosystem vulnerabilities to drought stress or other changing...

The objectives of this study were to develop a stand density management decision-support software suite for boreal conifers and demonstrate its potential utility in crop planning using practical deployment exemplifications. Denoted CP_DSS (CroPlanner Decision-support Software Suite), the program was ...

A novel approach is proposed to evaluate the impact of forestry on ecosystem quality in life cycle assessment (LCA) combining a naturalness assessment model with a species richness relationship. The approach is applied to a case study evaluating different forest management strategies involving...

Forest trees are the world's most important renewable natural resources in terms of their dominance among other biomasses and the diversity of molecules that they produce. Forest tree extractives include terpenes and polyphenols, widely recognized for their biological activity. These molecules are...

Afforestation of unproductive or currently non-forested territories can increase carbon land sinks and thus contribute to mitigate climate change. However, investments on large-scale afforestation could be risky because of the predicted effect of climate change on forest productivity of newly...

Across the boreal forest in North America, the black spruce (Picea mariana) cover type is ecologically and economically important, occupying roughly 10 percent of Minnesota's, USA 17.4 million acres (7.0 million hectares) of forestland. Traditionally managed through clearcut regeneration harvests,...

Over the past two decades, partial harvesting has been increasingly used in boreal forests as an alternative to clearcutting to promote irregular stand structures and maintain a balance between biodiversity preservation and continued timber production. However, relatively little is still known...