Managing Continuous Cover Forests- Operational Guidance Booklet No. 7
Dieses Dokument behandelt Strategien und praktische Leitlinien für die Bewirtschaftung von kontinuierlich bestockten Wäldern, insbesondere durch Anpassung der Forstwirtschaft an die individuellen Standortbedingungen und Managementziele. Es zielt darauf ab, Forstpersonal bei der Planung, Auswahl, Transformation und Überwachung solcher Wälder zu unterstützen, um nachhaltige und flexible Bewirtschaftungssysteme zu etablieren. Die Zielgruppe umfasst Forstwirte, Planer und Entscheidungsträger im Bereich der Waldbewirtschaftung, die an nachhaltigen und klimaresilienten Forstmanagementpraktiken interessiert sind.
Summary
Foreword
This booklet on managing continuous cover forests (CCF) aims to provide practical guidance, emphasizing a flexible, adaptive approach. It is designed as a reference and instructional resource to support forest management and transformations, highlighting mandatory and recommended actions, with channels for comments and updates.
Some terms explained
Defines key abbreviations such as ATC (Alternative to clearfell), CCF (Continuous cover forestry), DBH (Diameter at breast height), and others to facilitate understanding of the terminology used in the booklet.
What’s mandatory and recommended in OGB 7?
Outlines that the only mandatory requirement is designating areas for CCF where appropriate, with recommendations including integrating CCF into management plans, recording relevant data, actively monitoring CCF areas, and using yield classes effectively for production forecasting.
Summary
Summarizes key points about CCF, including its definition, the importance of management objectives, environmental and social benefits, and the need for site and stand assessment to identify suitable areas for CCF. It emphasizes monitoring, planning, and adapting practices to ensure successful management.
Getting started with CCF
Introduces CCF as an adaptive forest management approach aimed at maintaining multi-layered canopies without clearfelling. Highlights the importance of understanding CCF’s principles, benefits, and the need for a long-term, flexible management strategy tailored to site and stand characteristics.
What is CCF?
Defines CCF as a management approach that preserves one or more canopy levels without clearfelling, encouraging natural regeneration, diversity, and resilience. It cautions against rigid system prescriptions, advocating for flexibility and acknowledgment of terminological overlap with systems like LISS and ATC.
CCF and management objectives
Emphasizes that CCF should be adopted based on clear management objectives and long-term vision. It can support biodiversity, economic goals, and climate change adaptation, but may conflict with other objectives, requiring careful planning and purpose-driven decision-making.
CCF and climate change
Highlights CCF’s role as part of climate adaptation, spreading risk via diverse regeneration, sheltering against weather extremes, and enabling species adaptation. It supports stand resilience amidst climate uncertainty.
Linking CCF to management objectives
Connects specific CCF features like natural regeneration and canopy continuity to various management goals—environmental, economic, and social—showing how CCF can contribute positively or negatively depending on the objectives.
How do I select stands for CCF?
Recommends selecting stands where success is likely, based on site and stand characteristics. Important factors include soil quality, windthrow risk, existing regeneration, species suitability, and stand structure, with a decision tree aiding site assessment.
The site
Details factors such as soil quality, windthrow hazard, natural regeneration potential, and species compatibility, which influence stand suitability for CCF. Emphasizes using local knowledge and soil survey data to evaluate site conditions.
The stand
Focuses on evaluating stand structure, advance regeneration, ground flora, litter layer, and animal impacts. These factors influence the potential for successful CCF implementation and the need for site-specific adjustments.
How do I make CCF work?
Main tools for successful CCF are thinning, regeneration, and establishing access racks. Thinning controls development, enhances natural regeneration, and generates income; regeneration can be natural or planted, with patience required for success.
Operational considerations
Highlights the importance of planning access and racks, involving machine operators, and adapting conventional methods to CCF practices. Supports learning from trial sites and emphasizes staff training.
Thinning
Thinning is crucial for stand control, regeneration, and income. Crown thinning is preferred for transitioning to CCF as it improves tree size and stand appearance. Regular thinning enhances the likelihood of successful CCF.
Regeneration
Encourages natural regeneration, which needs good seed supply, suitable seedbed, favorable conditions, weed control, and protection from browsing. Planting is an alternative when natural regeneration fails, with attention to practice quality.
Self-test questionnaire
Provides questions to assess understanding of natural regeneration, seed production, germination, ground conditions, advance regeneration, herbicide use, shade tolerance, and animal impacts.
Respacing
Describes respacing young stands to remove competition, improve future operations, and control species composition. Best done when trees are 2-4 m tall, selecting vigorous trees, and using close spacing for efficiency.
What are you aiming for?
Defines objectives for species composition and forest structure, differentiating between simple and complex structures. Emphasizes that natural regeneration leads to increased species diversity and that structure impacts management approaches.
Guidance on transformation
Provides strategies for transforming even-aged stands into simple or complex structures, including timing, thinning, planting, and managing older stands. Stresses early action, patience, and species considerations.
Transformation to a simple structure
Involves even regeneration, selection of seed trees, periodic thinning, and eventual canopy removal with considerations for natural regeneration success and planting needs, often over a period of 20-50 years.
Transformation to a complex structure
Creates a wider diameter range by retaining small trees and encouraging growth of stable 'Frame' trees. Involves selective thinning, grouping, and planting in gaps, and may take up to 100 years for development.
Transformation in older stands
Addresses options for stands older than 40 years, noting potential limitations in regeneration and structural development, with risks and reduced opportunities for steering development.
How does CCF fit in with FD planning?
Emphasizes integrating CCF with forest design plans, recording objectives, and monitoring during the management cycle. Encourages reviewing existing plans for suitable areas and ensuring continuous management.
Forest design plans and management pro-forma
Suggests incorporating CCF into long-term forest design, recording detailed objectives, interventions, and monitoring strategies in pro-forma templates, and maintaining accessible records for success.
Monitoring and recording
Stresses active monitoring, recording key data such as species, ground flora, regeneration, and impacts, and using this information for adaptive management to ensure CCF success.
Production forecasting
Explains approaches to predicting volume yields in CCF, emphasizing describing existing stand structure accurately, using yield classes, and selecting appropriate models for future management, including simple and complex coupe types.
Describing the existing structure of the stand
Highlights the importance of detailed data on species, area, yield class, age, and storey, with guidance on accommodating multi-storey structures and use of the PF system for accurate forecasts.
Defining future management of the stand
Involves selecting yield models and coupe types, understanding management options like shelterwood or selection systems, and applying these within the PF system to simulate stand development.
Examples of production forecasting
Provides practical examples of stand descriptions and management strategies, illustrating different scenarios such as mixed species or understorey stands, with templates for planning.
Acknowledgements
Credits various individuals and organizations for their contributions to producing the booklet, including authors, editors, researchers, and practitioners.
Further support and guidance
Lists resources like further readings, training courses, trial sites, and organizations such as Forest Research and the Continuous Cover Forestry Group that support ongoing learning and application of CCF.
Appendices – CCF terms and procedures
Includes explanations of related silvicultural systems, guidance on marking crowns for thinning, using FCIN45 data, and examples of management pro-formas. Clarifies terminology and provides practical tools for managers.
Natural regeneration self-test evaluation
Offers a quiz on natural regeneration concepts, seed production, germination, ground conditions, and animal impacts to test understanding and inform management decisions.
[https://cdn.forestresearch.gov.uk/2008/07/fcogb7_v3_july2008.pdf Managing Continuous
Cover Forests- Operational Guidance Booklet No. 7] (en)
Number of pages: 64
Target countries: United Kingdom
Key takeaways
- CCF is a flexible, non-systematic approach to forest management
- It involves maintaining canopy at multiple levels without following a rigid silvicultural system, allowing adaptive management based on site and stand conditions.
- Selection of stand and site is crucial for successful CCF implementation
- Suitable sites should have good soils, low windthrow risk, and capacity for natural regeneration; stand factors include good structure, advance regeneration, and minimal animal disturbance.
- Thinning, especially crown thinning, is essential to develop CCF stands
- Thinning controls stand development, promotes natural regeneration, improves timber quality, and must be planned carefully, often involving adaptation of conventional practices.
- Natural regeneration can be successful but requires patience and optimal stand conditions
- Factors such as seed supply, seedbed quality, and animal browsing must be managed; planting is a reliable backup if natural regeneration fails after about 10 years.
- Transformation to CCF is best started early, preferably at the second thinning
- Early intervention facilitates development of even or diverse structures and ensures better outcomes, with timelines extending up to 50 years for younger stands and 100 years for older stands.
- CCF should be integrated into forest design plans and monitored continuously
- Design plans should specify objectives, areas, and management strategies, with regular monitoring and recording to adapt practices and ensure achievement of management goals.
Sources
- Managing Continuous
Cover Forests- Operational Guidance Booklet No. 7 - 2008-07-09 - https://cdn.forestresearch.gov.uk/2008/07/fcogb7_v3_july2008.pdf
