Tree Thinning Creates Increased Growth
Maintaining proper stand density is essential to reducing tree damage from both disease and insects. As a rule, healthy trees are less susceptible to insect infestation than unhealthy ones. Studies have shown that harmful insects thrive in poorly thinned forest and start infestation. Several additional studies have shown uninfested trees are generally larger, have thicker bark, greater crown/bole ratios, larger crowns, faster growth rates, and occur in less dense stands. The infested trees were usually located in heavily stocked stands that were under stress. While other factors can also impact the health of a stand, high stand density was the most important factor predisposing stands to infestation.
Tree Thinning Is Good For the Forest
Maintaining proper stand density is essential to reducing tree damage from both disease and insects. As a rule, healthy trees are less susceptible to insect infestation than unhealthy ones. Studies have shown that harmful insects thrive in poorly thinned forest and start infestation. Several additional studies have shown uninfested trees are generally larger, have thicker bark, greater crown/bole ratios, larger crowns, faster growth rates, and occur in less dense stands. The infested trees were usually located in heavily stocked stands that were under stress. While other factors can also impact the health of a stand, high stand density was the most important factor predisposing stands to infestation.
Tree Thinning Improves Utilization
While the economic benefits of regularly removing suppressed and dying trees are minimal, intermediate thinnings do pay for themselves and provide the economic advantage of improving the health of the entire timber stand. Arranged thinnings during growth cycles will yield wood that can be utilized for pulp, chip or pellet operations. Again, while the economic gain may be minimal in this case, the health of the overall stand is improved and thus, the value of the overall stand increases.
Tree Thinning Supports Forest Fire Prevention
In the summer of 2019, the Swan Lake Fire was ignited by a lightning strike. It raged the entire summer destroying almost 200,000 acres of some of the most cherished land in Alaska – the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Despite the benefits of thinning listed above, opponents typically rely on the same, haggard argument that is not rooted in environmental science or best forest management practices. These same opponents typically believe that “letting nature take its course” is the preferred method of managing our forests, and they generally eschew any economic gain that might result from forest management and the sale of timber. While Mother Nature has indeed used fire to control forest growth for eons, managing the damage and mitigating the risk that extreme wildfires pose to communities is a challenge that must be addressed. The best available science (and experience) tells us that proper thinnings and controlled burns are the most effective ways to minimize fire exposure.
As the American Forest Foundation (AFF) recently noted, “The good news comes in research showing that managing western forests through thinning and prescribed burns can reduce the impact of these fires. A recent study by The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Forest Service showed that a 12,000-acre ‘doughnut hole’ within the Carlton Complex fire zone remained untouched by the inferno. The area survived, the researchers believe, because it had been previously thinned and burned. They say that 9.5 million acres of Washington and Oregon forests would benefit from the same management that protected the doughnut hole.” Those same lessons apply to us here on the Kenai Peninsula.
