Exploring Silvicultural Strategies in Our Changing Forests: Spruce-Fir
This webinar will build on the first installment (northern hardwoods) using knowledge from 100 years of silvicultural research on spruce-fir forests in New England. Bob will review silvics and natural disturbance patterns, then cover important principles of regeneration, with emphasis on avoiding the mistakes of the 1980s. We will then cover silvicultural systems, focusing on contemporary irregular shelterwood options. We'll illustrate these concepts with the "Acadian Femelschlag," a natural disturbance-inspired group shelterwood system in which gaps are expanded periodically and residual structures are retained within the gaps.
Presenter: Dr. Robert (Bob) S. Seymour, Curtis Hutchins Professor of Silviculture, University of Maine School of Forest Resources