Treatment Installations

Treatment descriptions:
Organic matter removal treatments**:

Conventional bole-only removal
  • Cable harvested with logging slash left in place (merchantable limit 7.6 to 12.7 cm [3 to 5 inches]) with all broken non-merchantable logs and butt-cuts left in place.
  • Shovel logged bole-only "compaction plots" and "compaction plus tillage plots" were logged to a 12.7-cm top as was all of Block I. Remaining bole-only cable-logged plots in Blocks II, III, IV were logged to a 7.6-cm top limit.
  • Non-merchantable Class 2 and 3 material was left in place.
Total-bole removal to a 5-cm top
  • Cable harvested with total-bole removal to a 5-cm (2-inch) top and all broken stems and butt-cuts removed from the plots.
  • Non-merchantable blow-down Class 2 and 3 material) was left in place.
Total-tree removal
  • Cable harvested with total bole, all live limbs, most large dead limbs greater than 1 inch in diameter, and all Class 1, and merchantable Class 2 woody material removed.
  • Dead limbs that are part of forest floor were left in place. All Class 3, 4, and 5 woody material and remnant old-growth logs left in place.
  • The shovel inadvertently removed some forest floor when limbs and tops were removed.**
"Total-tree plus removal"
  • Cable-harvested with total bole, all live limbs, large dead limbs greater than 0.63 cm (0.25-inch) in diameter, and all Class 1, 2, 3 coarse woody material removed.
  • Most Class 4 and 5 coarse woody material and all old-growth logs were removed. Class 4 and 5 material including "red-rot" that was not easily removed in chunks or was below the ground surface was left in place.
  • The shovel inadvertently removed some forest floor with the Class 4 and 5 material.** Fine woody material was removed by hand.

**All plots had a shovel with a piling-rake head traverse the outside buffer within treatment plots to either scatter slash uniformly across the plots or remove woody material to treatment specifications. This was necessary because the tree-felling pattern on the plots concentrated slash in certain areas.

Vegetation control treatments:
No Vegetation Control
  • Cable-harvested and conventional bole-only utilization
  • No vegetation control planned
With Vegetation Control
  • Intensive vegetation control with herbicides during years 1 and 2 and possibly year 3.

Fertilization treatments:

No Fertilization
  • No fertilization planned
With Fertilization
  • Fertilization will take place when a significant growth loss reduction is detected between organic removal treatments or at the time of crown closure, whichever occurs first. Subsequent fertilizations will occur at 5-year intervals. N-fertilization rates may be less than 224 kg/ha if fertilization begins prior to crown closure.

Soil Disturbance and Tillage Treatments:

Minimal Soil Disturbance
  • Cable-harvested conventional bole-only utilization removal under a vegetation control and fertilization regime. There was some soil mixing and displacement of forest floor caused by logs being partially lifted and cable yarded.
Mechanical Harvesting
Compaction / Disturbance
  • Shovel-harvested conventional bole-only removal treatment under a vegetation control and fertilization regime.
  • Shovel traffic covered ~50% of the area creating Class 2 disturbance on 25-32 percent of the area with ruts averaging 13 cm deep.***
Tillage
  • Shovel-harvested conventional bole-only removal treatment under a vegetation control and fertilization regime.
  • Shovel-scarifier tillage to 60-cm. depth on area trafficked by shovel *** Soil disturbance classification as defined by Scott (1999).