Tree marking guidelines for northern hardwoods: a review of criteria for assessing vigour and quality

Abstract

Recent studies have highlighted the need to update hardwood tree marking guides by changing the criteria used to assess vigour and quality, and thus the priority for deciding which trees to remove and retain during selection harvests. However, these studies have recommended different criteria, so it remains uncertain which should be included in the classification systems used to assess vigour and quality. We review these studies with the aim of reducing this uncertainty and identifying potential improvements to the provincial tree marking guides for northern hardwood forests in Canada, particularly the Ontario Tree Marking Guide. We review the differences in methodologies and summarize which defects have been shown to affect vigour and/or quality. The defects that should be used to assess vigour are canopy dieback, cankers, and fungi. Decaying wounds, wounds without decay, canopy density, and bark condition could also be used as secondary criteria for borderline cases in which the primary criteria are not decisive. The defects that should be used to assess quality are cankers, fungi, cracks, cavities, and decay (including black bark and wounds with moisture or soft wood). We present a new classification system based on these results and identify potential challenges to its implementation.