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Concept
Thinning
Summary
Thinning is a term used in agricultural sciences to mean the removal of some plants, or parts of plants, to make room for the growth of others. Selective removal of parts of a plant such as branches, buds, or roots is typically known as pruning.
In forestry, thinning is the selective removal of trees, primarily undertaken to improve the growth rate or health of the remaining trees. Overcrowded trees are under competitive stress from their neighbors. Thinning may be done to increase the resistance of the stand to environmental stress such as drought, insect infestation, extreme temperature, or wildfire.
Tree thinning may be practised in forestry to make a stand more profitable in an upcoming final felling, or to advance ecological goals such as increasing biodiversity or accelerating the development of desired structural attributes such as large diameter trees with long tree crowns.
Early thinning, eg. after 20 years, rather than late thinning, eg. after 50 years, has different effects on the trees thinned. An early thinning would encourage trees to develop wider crowns, increase trunk diameter and be more stable against threats like snow breakage or windthrow. Too much thinning too early in their lifespan could cause a site to overgrow with shrubs and prevent an understory from regenerating efficiently. Alternatively, thinning an area later would mean that trees will grow tall and slender; although the trees would gain value incrementally with time, they may be less marketable as thinness reduces said value. Epicormic shooting is a risk when thinning is carried out tardily, which can lead to tree branchiness and the presence of knots in the resultant timber harvest, again reducing value.
Traditionally, thinning has been performed to create a desired balance between individual tree attributes (such as tree diameter) and area-relative attributes such as volume. It has been, and often still is, applied with the desire to create uniform stands. As a result, thinning treatments are often described in terms of number of trees per area to remain or average spacing between trees.
Official source
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Related concepts (4)
Silviculture
Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, as well as quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production. The name comes from the Latin silvi- ('forest') and culture ('growing'). The study of forests and woods is termed silvology. Silviculture also focuses on making sure that the treatment(s) of forest stands are used to conserve and improve their productivity. Generally, silviculture is the science and art of growing and cultivating forest [crops], based on a knowledge of silvics .
Forest stand
A forest stand is a contiguous community of trees sufficiently uniform in composition, structure, age, size, class, distribution, spatial arrangement, condition, or location on a site of uniform quality to distinguish it from adjacent communities. A forest is a "collection of stands" also utilizing the practices of forestry. Stand level modelling is a type of modelling in the forest sciences in which the main unit is a forested stand. A forest stand is commonly described as in 10ths or 10%s.
Coppicing
Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level, resulting in a stool. New growth emerges, and after a number of years, the coppiced tree is harvested, and the cycle begins anew. Pollarding is a similar process carried out at a higher level on the tree in order to prevent grazing animals from eating new shoots.