Selection

Prevailing wisdom suggests that uneven-aged reproduction cutting methods, especially the single tree selection method, are best for shade-tolerant species (Smith 1986). As a result, the use of uneven-aged silviculture to manage shade-intolerant species such as the southern pines is often criticized. But historical experience suggests that the method can work with pines, subject to certain considerations. The Dauerwald, among the first applications of uneven-aged silviculture, was imposed in plantations of Scots pine (P. sylvestris L.) on poor sites in Germany (Troup 1952); some of its attributes still apply to current uneven-aged methods (Guldin 1996). Pearson (1950) applied a selection method to ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa Laws.) stands on the Fort Valley Experimental Forest in Arizona, thus laying the groundwork for contemporary application of that method in the American West (Becker and Corse 1997).

The group selection method in
application to longleaf pine in a
Farm Forestry Forty demonstration
on the Escambia Experimental Forest,
near Brewton, AL

In the South, the best long-term uneven-aged dataset comes from the Good and Poor Farm Forestry Forties of the Crossett Experimental Forest (CEF) in southern Arkansas. Established in mixed loblolly-shortleaf pine stands on the west Gulf Coastal Plain in 1937, the Good and Poor Farm Forestry Forties have yielded data that were summarized after four decades (Baker 1986, Reynolds and others 1984). Other long-term examples are the quarter-century summary from the Farm Forestry Forties at Mississippi State University (Farrar and others 1989) and the 33-year record from the University of Arkansas’s Hope Farm Woodland at Hope, AR (Farrar and others 1984). Empirical evidence suggests that the selection method can be made to work with longleaf pine in the lower Coastal Plain of Florida and Alabama (Farrar 1996), and with shortleaf pine in the Interior Highlands of Arkansas and Oklahoma (Guldin and Loewenstein 1999, Lawson 1986). In short, the selection method can be adapted to southern pines if attention is paid to marking, regeneration, and stand structure (Guldin and Baker 1998).

Stand structure in a stand under
management using the selection method,
Good Farm Forestry Forty demonstration,
Crosset Experimental Forest,
near Crosset, AR

The general experience with uneven-aged silviculture in intolerant pines would lead one to suspect that group selection, with its larger openings, would be more effective than single tree selection, with its minimal canopy opening. Certainly some evidence suggests that in longleaf pine, group selection may be an effective reproduction cutting method (Brockway and Outcalt 1998, Farrar 1996, Farrar and Boyer 1991). On the other hand, Russ Reynolds, the scientist who pioneered the research at CEF, did not distinguish specifically between single tree selection and group selection; he spoke instead of using whatever size of openings was indicated by local stand conditions (fig. 9.6). Whether group selection or single tree selection is preferred, a number of considerations should receive special attention when selection methods are applied to southern pines: initial stand conditions, regeneration, developmental dynamics, application of marking rules, and residual stand structure.

• Initial Conditions
• Regeneration Status
• Residual Basal Area
• Developmental Dynamics
• Marking Rules
• Other Considerations