PLANNING FOR SUSTAINED YIELD OPERATIONS

Abstract

Sustained yield management as applied to operations of the Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company means continuous production and balancing cut and growth by species and individual cutting unit as soon as possible, usually no longer than ten years.The farm woodlot type of operation is considered ideal from the standpoint of growing the maximum wood because of permanency and accessibility. With this type of an operation it is estimated that present growth rates can be increased over three times and that the mean annual increment for large areas of productive forest lands, even in the comparatively slow growing timber types in Minnesota and Ontario, will reach nearly one-half cord per acre annually.One of the most difficult problems in the establishment of small sustained yield units, or for that matter placing any unmanaged forest under management, is the preponderance of mature and overmature wood. However, at the expense of holding wood well beyond its peak in growth and a possible loss in volume, the cut for all units is held down in the interest of continuous operations and to avoid the necessity of abandoning camp and road improvements. This is done so as to convert as rapidly as possible to a balanced distribution of ages in each cutting unit.Lower cost wood is the principal advantage of this type of planning. It may take some time before the potential value of sustained yield cutting is fully realized, but on the premise that wood will be more valuable in the future, and all recent trends support this view, the eventual advantage to those mills starting now to grow the maximum volume of high quality wood close to their mills cannot be doubted.