Stand Development and Silviculture in Bottomland Hardwoods’

INTRODUCTION Silviculture for the production of high-quality timber in southern bottomland hardwood forests involves the application of environmentally sound practices in order to enhance the growth and quality of both individual trees and stands. To accomplish this purpose, silvicultural practices are typically used to regulate stand density, species composition, and stem quality to promote the growth and development of high-value stands. To be successful, the hardwood silviculturist must understand the process of stand development--how even-aged, mixed-species stands develop and change over time, especially with respect to species composition and stand structure. If silviculturists know how hardwood stands develop and mature under natural conditions, they are better able to predict the effects of various silvicultural manipulations in these stands. Successful management of mixed-species stands, such as most southern bottomland hardwood forests, requires specific knowledge about each of the species in the stand: (1) biological requirements, not only for regeneration, but also for future growth and development; (2) pattern of growth over time, such as slow vs. rapid early growth; and (3) silvical characteristics, especially shade tolerance and flood tolerance. These three critical characteristics of a species collectively determine the competitive ability of that species. In addition, differences in the competitive abilities of the various species found in a given stand determine the future development of that stand. The hardwood silviculturist must recognize and understand these relationships to better understand how different stands develop under different conditions to produce the structure and species composition that exist in a given stand today.