Industrial Wood Regimes for Plantations of P. patula, P. taeda and P. elliottii

SYNOPSIS

In a revision of work done in 1971, recent costs were used in a simulation exercise to establish trends for M.A.I. and various economic criteria in relation to a range of silvicultural regimes for the production of industrial wood.

Widely fluctuating results are given by some recognised financial criteria, depending on economic conditions such as prevailing interest rates. Thus the use of some financial criteria may not be appropriate for discriminating between long term forestry investment alternatives. The cost benefit ratio seemed to give the most consistent results under varying economic conditions.

In determining the more suitable regimes, M.A.I. was used as the main criterion with the cost: benefit ratio as a check. Practical field considerations were also taken into account.

Regimes were also developed for particularly difficult sites in terms of harvesting and transport.

Depending upon site, site quality, species, stocking and economics, recommended rotation lengths range from 18 to 35 years.

“Industrial Wood Regimes” is the term used here to denote high volume yielding silvicultural regimes as opposed to regimes in which piece size of the timber is so important that it may have an overriding influence.