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Rotation length & saw timber production /ac of loblolly in GA

Started by BrandonTN, October 30, 2009, 09:08:09 PM

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BrandonTN

I am curious to know what is the typical rotation length for a stand of loblolly pines in Georgia, or other areas in the Southeast where loblolly does best. I want to compare it with the rotation of length of Scots pine stands here in Finland. Yes, for those of you who don't know, I'm studying forestry abroad in Finland until May 2010, then I'll graduate. I'm taking a course called Boreal Forests: Their Function and Management. Typical silviculture kind of class. We used an ecosystem management model called IMPACT that simulated a Scots pine stand over an 80 year rotation, while having the options of applying thinnings as often and as intensely as we wanted.

With two thinnings applied over the course of the 80 year rotation,  450 m3/hectare of sawtimber was produced. Not sure if I converted correctly, but is tjhat 6433 ft3/acre?

Anyway, I know loblolly's are super fast growers compared to Scots pine over here in cold Finland. I'm curious to see just how much more productive pine stands in the Southeast US are.

Cheers!

ps: I will put some photos relative to Finnish forestry once I get some good pics. Also, if anyone has any questions about Finnish forestry, ask me so I can find out, ie help me ask good questions so I can learn, too.  8)
Forester, Nantahala National Forest

WDH

Way to go Brandon-in-Finland!

Forest Industry in the Southern USA has steadily reduced rotation age to the upper 20's.  A good number would be 27 or 28 years.  It used to be the low 30's, but with better genetics and fertilizer, that age has been reduced.  A reasonable regime might plant 550 TPA, first thin at about age 12-15 with a yield of about 28 tons/acre.  Then a second thinning about age 19-22 with a yield of about 28 tons/acre, and a final harvest of 26 - 30 years with a yield of about 75-90 tons/acre.  This regime would include 2 fertilizations after the first and second thins.  However, with lower stumpage and product prices, one of the first things that companies do to reduce cost is to suspend fertilization.

I am very interested in your experiences in Finland, so keep us posted. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

tonich

Scots pine is one of the main economic species in Bulgaria.
It is the coniferous, which takes the lead in distribution, both in unmixed and mixed compositions.
The rotation length is usually 80-100 years, depending mainly on the regeneration approach (shelterwood system takes some extra years to apply).
The number of thinning is usually 2-3. The clear mature stand has a standing volume of 350 - 400 m3/hectare
The build timber is 50 - 70 % of total harvested.

SwampDonkey

I remember a fall camp in college where we spent a week in a logging camp along the Nepisiquit River in Northern New Brunswick. It was black spruce, jack pine, balsam, white birch forest. In the older undisturbed stands it was black spruce as the others died out and were too shaded to regenerate. Disturbances were fire and budworm and now clear cuts. But we were told those stands yielded 450 m3/ha. I was on several site excursions and on many the only component of any significance left standing on undisturbed sites was black spruce. There was a lot of layering in some sites because the shrub layer was thick with heath species, many which are detrimental to the growth of black spruce and jack pine. I never saw a stick of timber up there bigger than 10" and from what I could see the spacing was very open and looked to be lucky to have 20 m2/ha basal area. I never did see this 450 m3/ha all the time I was up there. They tend to apply volume calculations equally to fir, spruce and pine. Fir tops out around 65 feet with 18' dbh (and that's bigger than the southern NB fir), black spruce and jack pine on those sandy soils about the same I suppose. Now move to another site, the fir may be the same specs, the spruce and pine could be 15-20 feet taller or more if the spruce happens to be red. Tall larger stems in similarly dense stands. Now I'd like someone to explain to me how that volume used for 18", 65 foot fir is the same as an 18", 80 foot spruce same site class. Yup they'll group the two in the same height class. ::) Getting back to the original stand, I would say there would have been around 180 m3/ha, and the second stand is getting a lot closer to their 450 m3/ha. ;) They had this mental picture of stands they were familiar with on the Nashwaak river and trying to equate it to a site they were unfamiliar with in a more boreal region. The Nashwaak drainage does not have natural jack pine, it was all planted. And too wide I might add. Allowed the trees to go all limby and crooked.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

stonebroke

How come scotch Pine does well in Europe and grows  so crappy here in the Northeast?

Stonebroke

Clark

Quote from: stonebroke on October 31, 2009, 06:46:59 PM
How come scotch Pine does well in Europe and grows  so crappy here in the Northeast?

Stonebroke

From what I've seen, I think you can expand Northeast to North America.

Clark
SAF Certified Forester

WDH

It is a fine timber tree in Scandinavia.  The conditions here are just not the same, and the tree does not do as well.  It would be like me having to endure a winter in Michigan, or even worse, Canada or Alaska  ::).  I probably would do poorly.

Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

SwampDonkey

It would do fine if people realized climate a latitude effects it's growth habit, vigour and form. It's just like any tree. You can't bring a red oak from Texas and expect it to live and strive in New Brunswick. These commercial green houses never have seemed to grasp the concept too well. Or they know full well, and it's a money grab. I see magnolia for sale up here every spring, and they are dead by next April. People still buy them and plant'm.  Waste of money. ::) Every tree and shrub gets a label showing a wide range of plant hardiness zones. Well which zone did your tree come from or the parents of that tree come from? If it came from a  7, your out of luck if your in a 4. Oh, this tag says Zone 4-7. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

BrandonTN

Swampdonkey...besides temperature, does the change in latitude you speak of have to do anything with light & its length (I can't remember the correct term for the process that triggers the light-chemical processes).
Forester, Nantahala National Forest

SwampDonkey

Quote from: BrandonTN on November 01, 2009, 06:38:34 AM
Swampdonkey...besides temperature, does the change in latitude you speak of have to do anything with light & its length (I can't remember the correct term for the process that triggers the light-chemical processes).

Photoperiod. Yes. Don't forget genetics. But in the spring time growth is triggered by temperature after dormancy is broken. Some species don't take long to break dormancy. I've seen aspen in November begin to flower if we have an unusually warm fall after a cold snap of a few days. Less daylight, but it was the temperature that triggered the growth. Of course those flowers and any shoot elongation gets killed by cold. Our daylight hours up here in late summer more than way down south. SO southern trees won't have time to harden off because the daylight says it's not time to go dormant. The local tree might go dormant when the light drops below 14 hours, might be 12.5 further south for the same species.

On the Queen Charlotte Islands I think the frost hardy zone is 8, here it's 4. Here, we are further south. Out there growth begins in late March, here mid to late May. ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

woodtroll

Brandon
I would be curious to know what products they are producing. Also the size of the trees harvested.

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