• Moores, Andrew R.
  University of Maine Graduate School
  

There is an increased interest in maintaining complex mixed-species, uneven-aged stands in forestry today. These stands meet many non-timber objectives and maintain non-timber values by conserving important ecological characteristics of the forest. Maintaining these types of stands is especially applicable in Maine where the natural disturbance regime is dominated by small partial disturbances resulting in a naturally uneven-aged, mixed-species forest structure (Seymour et al. 2002). The growth dynamics of these stands are very complicated and poorly understood and thus present a challenge to foresters trying to manage complex stands through uneven-aged silviculture. This often results in mismanagement or conversion to simpler, better understood even-aged silvicultural systems.

While maintaining complex stands helps meet many non-timber objectives, maintaining high productivity is also key to meeting timber supply objectives. Stand level stemwood volume increment is highly correlated to leaf area index (LAI), which is defined as leaf area per unit area of ground (Kenefic 2000; o'Hara et al. 2001). Maintaining high productivity requires maintaining high stand-level leaf area. Although each stand has a maximum potential leaf area (Long and Smith 1984), additional productivity can be achieved by maximizing the growth efficiency. Stemwood growth efficiency (GE) is defined as stemwood volume increment per unit of foliage (Seymour and Kenefic 2002)