Module 11: Artificial Treatments to Increase Stocking of Commercial Species

There are some conditions under which natural regeneration fails and there are no viable alternatives to artificial regeneration with planted seeds and seedlings.  For example, where all advanced regeneration and populations of buried dormant tree seeds have been destroyed, and seed trees are extremely sparse or absent, the high costs and high risks of artificial regeneration may need to be borne.  Under other conditions, natural forest management using natural regeneration is possible, but the higher productivity possible in well managed plantations is desired for economic or other reasons.  Even at their most productive, managed natural forests will probably not be able to satisfy increasing national and international demands for wood and wood products.  Highly productive and intensively managed plantations can help to reduce timber harvesting pressures on the world’s remaining natural forests and thereby to help maintain their capacity to supply the other goods and services that society requires (e.g., NTFPs, biodiversity protection,  and recreation areas).

A great deal more has been written about plantation forestry and other uses of artificial regeneration than about the natural regeneration methods focussed upon in this text. Instead of trying to summarize this vast literature (see citations at the end of the chapter), only a few topics of particular relevance for natural forest managers will be covered.  It should be pointed out to silviculturalists who are mostly interested in natural forest management, however, that there is almost no better way to discover how a species regenerates naturally than trying to plant it oneself; there is a great deal to be learned from plantation forestry and horticulture.

Topic 11.1: Planting Materials

Topic 11.2: Site Preparation and Planting

Topic 11.3: Enrichment Planting

Topic 11.4: Environmental and Economic Concerns about Plantation Forestry