Pacific Southwest

Title: Plant community development after 28 years in small group-selection openings

Author: McDonald, Philip M.; Reynolds, Phillip E.

Date: 1999

Source: Res. Paper PSW-RP-241. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; 17 p

Station ID: RP-PSW-241

Description: Thirty openings, 9, 18, and 27 meters in diameter, were created by group-selection harvest on a high quality site in northern California in 1963. In 1991, or 28 years after site preparation, the plant community in the openings had stabilized at 55 species. A major shift was from annuals to perennials. New seedlings of ponderosa and sugar pine were able to become established for the first 15 years and those of Douglas-fir and California white fir for the first 25 years. Density and development of conifer and hardwood saplings, shrubs, forbs, graminoids, and ferns were examined for differences in openings size and aspect. In general, plants in almost all classes of vegetation were more numerous and developed better in the larger openings and on the south aspect. Tanoak was an exception, with significantly more seedlings in the smallest opening size and on the north aspect. After 28 years, conifer and hardwood saplings averaged more than 25,230 per hectare, and shrubs, forbs, graminoids, and ferns averaged more than 220,700 per hectare. Conifer and hardwood species grew two to four times faster in height the last 18 years than during the first 10 years. The tallest saplings were 9 to 12 meters in height after 28 years

Keywords: group selection, mixed-conifers, plant community dynamics, regeneration, Sierra Nevada, silviculture

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Citation

McDonald, Philip M.; Reynolds, Phillip E.  1999.  Plant community development after 28 years in small group-selection openings.   Res. Paper PSW-RP-241. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; 17 p.