Damage and Tolerability Thresholds for Remaining Trees after Timber Harvesting: A Case Study from Southwest Romania

Abstract

The present study analyses the damage of remaining trees after timber harvesting from 24 logging sites from southwest Romania. The purpose was to establish tolerability thresholds within which damaged trees recover in a short amount of time, reducing the possibility of further rot apparition and tree health deterioration. Observations were resumed after the growing season had passed. Healed damage was analysed in regard to damage type, width, orientation and tree circumference. By using the ratio between the width of healed damage and the circumference of trees as experimental variants, equations were elaborated to determine the tolerance threshold of trees in logging. This is expressed as a maximum value between the damage width and the damaged tree circumference for which the damage is curable. The correlation between the circumference and the abovementioned relation was analysed, and differences between the values of the analysed relation for different cardinal orientations of the damage were statistically tested. The value of this ratio, which can be considered a tolerance threshold for trees in logging, records values of 0.09 (for thinnings, for cuttings to increase the light availability for regeneration and for final cuttings from shelterwood systems) and 0.10 (for first-intervention cuttings, as well as preparatory and seed cutting from shelterwood systems or selections systems).

A Comparison between Uneven-Aged Forest Stands from the Southern Carpathians and Those from the Banat Mountains

“…This is a silvicultural system in which individual trees or small groups of trees are cut periodically in order to improve the forest structure and its growth. At the same time, these actions support the regeneration in that particular area [29,30]. Selective cutting applied in uneven-aged stands is difficult, and this makes repeated thinning unfeasible to be applied.…”

Forests along roads - a case of stability, resilience and biodiversity

“…Regarding the community of plants in spruce dominated stands, the highest species richness was seen in monocultures as compared to mixed stands were spruce is dominating. However, the type of management can be detrimental in this case because clear-cuts of spruce can open up the land to light demanding understory and vascular plants which colonize first, also known as pioneer species (Cântar et al, 2022;Sofletea and Curtu, 2007).…”

Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) in Romanian Forestry

“…Furthermore, dieback of black locust trees was reported in industrial zones, one example being near the town of Cops , a Mică (in central Romania) due to soil and air pollution with sulfur and heavy metal compounds generated by industry (carbon black smoke) until the early 1990s. The main symptom was leaf necrosis, with the effects diminishing after the pollution source was removed in past decades [48][49][50][51][52].…”

“…Because plantations occur more often in low lands and drought prone areas, close to agricultural crops locations, black locust stands are subject to wildfires in which treeseven younger ones-survive while litter is burnt completely [51]. Long periods with very little/no rainfall were assumed as the main cause for dieback and decline of stands in 1980s and 1990s in the south and east of the country [53].…”