(7) Crop-Tree
Management(7) Crop-Tree
ManagementThis compartment is used to study crop-tree management in 80-year-old central Appalachian hardwoods. Crop trees are trees favored for their potential to produce high-quality wood, provide food or shelter for wildlife, or other desired benefits. The area is divided into four 6-acre treatment units. Within each treatment unit, crop trees to be retained for the future were selected using the "crown-touching" approach. After treatment, crop trees would be free-to-grow or would be touching the crown of only one other crop tree. Cutting treatments were applied to each area in 1989. The treatments varied from removing only trees touching the selected crop trees to removing all trees except the selected crop trees. Where all trees except crop trees were removed, a two-age stand is developing where the taller trees are 80 years older than the young trees growing beneath them. Residual trees in all treatment areas are growing faster because competing trees have been removed. Tree growth, nesting productivity of birds, and aesthetics will be monitored here until 2069.