Improved guidelines for any-aged forestry

Abstract

Any-aged forest management (AAF) is a means to reduce clear-felling without compromising profitability or timber production. The concept of AAF is to choose between clear-felling or thinning one harvest at a time based on what is better at that time in terms of the management objectives for the forest. No permanent choice is made between rotation forest management (RFM) and continuous cover forestry (CCF). Optimized AAF is never less profitable than RFM or CCF because all cutting types of both RMF and CCF are also allowed in AAF. This study developed a new set of guidelines for managing boreal forest stands under AAF when the forest landowner maximizes economic profitability. The first part of the guidelines indicates whether the stand should be cut or left to grow. This advice is based on stand basal area, mean tree diameter, minimum allowable post-thinning basal area, site productivity, and discount rate. If the optimal decision is harvesting, the second instruction determines whether the harvest should be clear-felling or thinning. In the case of thinning, the remaining two steps determine the optimal harvest rate in different diameter classes. The guidelines were developed using two different modeling approaches, regression analysis, and optimization, and applied to two Finnish forest holdings, one representing the southern boreal zone and the other the northern parts of the boreal zone. The results show that AAF improves profitability compared to current Finnish management instructions for RFM. The use of clear-felling also decreased the lower the minimum acceptable post-thinning basal area of the stand.