The Use of Site in Forest Management

Abstract

Total site is that combination of environmental features with which the forest manager must deal in the growing and harvesting of forest crops. It is not enough to know the kind of regional climate, the zonal soil type and the regional cover type. The forester must know the significant features of each local area with which he has to deal.It is essential to know the variations in soil profile and forest communities at every stage in forest succession for each specific landform and climatic region. It is also necessary to know the effect of man's activities upon forest succession and soil characteristics. For the actual management of any specific forest area, a forester requires a knowledge of total site, not merely a classification of site.It is hoped that the proposed site classification may provide a scientific regional framework into which may be placed those significant site features with which a practicing forester must deal. The objectives of this site classification are twofold:1. To provide a systematic approach to forest description and site evaluation of local areas.2. To provide a framework to facilitate the application of results of forest research and practice to other areas.

The current status of forest site classification in Ontario

“…Hills initiated forest site-related research in Ontario during the 1940s, drawing on his extensive practical experience in pedology and soil mapping, as well as a thorough understanding of contemporary European approaches to landform description, plant sociology and forest mensuration. During the 1950s and 1960s, Hills and his colleagues, working at the provincial Department of Lands and Forests, developed what was referred to as the "Ontario Site Classification System" (Hills 1952(Hills , 1953(Hills , 1954(Hills , 1958(Hills , 1960(Hills , 1961Hills and Pierpoint 1960;Hills et al 1970). This hierarchical classification was designed to stress physiographic characteristics of sites and was organized as a multi~level framework for forest management information (Figure 1).…”

“…At the broadest level, Site Regions were based on the observation and interpretation of vegetation-landform coincidences which also expressed major zonations of the macroclimate continuum (Figure 2a,b;Hills 1960). Hills (1953) described Site Regions as broad geographical zones within which specific plant successions occur on specific landform positions. The detailed taxonomic level of the typical forest stand (the so-called "Total Site Type") consisted of two components: the "Physiographic Site Type" and the "Forest Type", both of which were characterized by specific physical and vegetational features (Hills 1958;Hills and Pierpoint 1960;Hills et al 1970).…”

“…Individual studies were undertaken to demonstrate the applicability of Hills' approach to multiple-use planning, with mapping units and subsequent interpretations based on the inherent biological capability of the landbase. Investigations were performed on areas of various sizes ranging from as small as approximately 50 km2 (Lynn and Zoltai 1965) to entire administrative Districts (Hills 1963;Keenan and Hills 1964) and Regions (Zoltai 1965(Zoltai , 1974 (Hills 1953(Hills , 1960, (right) Forest Regions (Rowe 1972).…”

Habitat mapping and interpretation in New England

“…Biophysical approaches are integrated systems where the units are classified by both biological and physicallc hemical criteria. The holistic system of Hills (1953) is a pioneering example. The habitat types described by Mueller-Dombois (1965) on the basis of tree-shrub vegetation, soils, and glacial deposit also typify the biophysical approach.…”

A Biogeochemical Examination of Ontario’s Boreal Forest Ecosite Classification System

“…This system serves as a basis for the province's adaptive approach to land management, consistent with Canadian ecologist Crawford Stanley Holling's groundbreaking research on adaptive management conducted during the 1970s [5]. Originally based on Angus Hills' Site Regions and Districts [6,7], this ELC has a rich history of ongoing refinement in response to new technologies and statistical methods [8], and has been influential in the development of other classification systems internationally (e.g., [3]). At fine spatial scales (1:8000 to 1:50,000), the system is extended through the use of the ecosite unit, which is defined as a landscape area consisting of typical, recurring associations of vegetation and substrate types [9].…”