Overview and Some Needed General Concepts ►Quantitative silviculture and the ability to make objective decisions ►Trees are just plants; improving their growth up to their biological potential is a matter of removing factors limiting to growth (water, nutrients, light, rooting volume) ►Potential may be influenced by climate (respiration) and disease/insect presence ►Factors limiting growth depend on site General site types (sand hills, wet flats, compact clays, P deficient, loams, old fields) ►Types of treatment response ►What drives decisions? Site quality, treatment cost and response type, markets, length of investment ►Site Quality and site index (define site index, distribution of base site index, changing site index through treatments)
10:00-10-20
Refreshment Break
10:20—noon
Regeneration Decisions ►Species Choice- properties of loblolly, slash, and longleaf and what might push a decision toward each species ►Genetics Choice – Open pollinated, control pollinated, varietals, flex stands; disease resistance, form and tree quality, growth
Noon
Catered Lunch (Included in reg fee)
1:00-2:30
Planting Density – impact of markets, concept of limiting density, effect of density on height, dbh, some results of intensive culture/density study of PMRC including species comparisons
2:30-2:50
Refreshment Break
2:50-5:00
Site Preparation – objective(s) of site preparation; chemical, mechanical, combination chem/mech ►Herbaceous Weed Control – costs/benefits; tank mix and/or post-plant over the top; one year vs two years ►Length & magnitude of growth response; survival ►Financial Analysis of Forestry Investments – concepts of BLV, NPV, ROI; don’t have to grow more wood in a rotation to increase financial returns; could just lower rotation age to produce same wood
5:00
Adjourn
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Time
Session
8:15am
Established Stand Silvicultural Treatments ►Woody Release age 1 to late teens; research results for woody release; type, length and magnitude of response; why plants respond; which portion of dbh distribution benefits most; easy to control and hard to control upland species; waxy leaf species issues ►Concept of marginal rate of return and typical rates of return for woody release; trends in woody release costs ►Additional benefits of woody release beyond growth (fire danger, harvesting costs, inventory costs, expensing costs rather than capitalizing, quicker turnaround after clearcut)
10:00
Refreshment Break
10:20
Fertilization – P deficient sites; sampling for nutrient levels and levels to look for; ratios needed; ►Concept of leaf area; efficient ways to fertilize; type, length, and magnitude of response; N alone vs N+P fertilization; ►Piedmont vs coastal plain nutrient levels; which portion of dbh distribution benefits most; marginal rates of return for fertilization and impact of fertilizer costs. Trends in fertilizer costs. ►Release and fertilization combined
Noon
Lunch
1:00
Thinning – Is thinning an intensive silvicultural treatment? ►Yes, for most markets it is a way of capturing the growth of intensive treatments. Timing of thins, frequency of thins, intensity of thins. Importance of markets. Which trees to thin. ►Importance of keeping inventory information up to date and what detail is important. Concept of TQI. Difference in returns for different thinning strategies. Thinning slash vs loblolly pine.
2:30-2:50
Refreshment Break
2:50-5:00
Pine straw raking- opportunities, realistic sites, nutrients, effect on thinning schedules Wood Quality as impacted by silvicultural treatments ►MAI that can be attained for slash and loblolly pines for different levels of management ►Using operability information and inventory information to maximize stumpage prices received for sales ►Summary and questions
