• Swisher, Julie Lee
  University of Maine Graduate School
  

In January 1998, a severe ice storm struck the northeastern United States, causing severe injury to forested area. Forest damage from ice storms is a result of glaze formation on twigs and branches. Ice storms are recognized as severe disturbances due to their highly destructive nature as a result of ice glaze.

The objectives of this study were to investigate injury and recovery from the 1998 ice storm in thinned and unthinned hardwood stands. Four field sites were chosen and individuals in both thinned and unthinned areas were measured to determine damage and recovery values.

results indicate that thinned stands did not suffer the effects of the 1998 ice storm greater than the unthinned stands for all four study sites combined. However, at individual sites large differences between thinned and unthinned stands were detected.