Rj. Barbour et al., BREAST-HEIGHT RELATIVE DENSITY AND RADIAL GROWTH IN MATURE JACK PINE (PINUS-BANKSIANA) FOR 38 YEARS AFTER THINNING, Canadian journal of forest research, 24(12), 1994, pp. 2439-2447
Sawlogs are in short supply in northern Ontario, and thinning has been
suggested as one way to improve the situation. The only rotation-age
jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) thinning trial in the region was exa
mined to assess how commercial thinning influenced wood quality. This
report covers an unreplicated trial of a 65-year chronology of pith to
bark relative densities and growth rates based on X-ray densitometry
of breast-height increment cores taken from trees on two thinned plots
(average spacing 2.6 and 3.4 m) and an unthinned control (average spa
cing 1.7 m). The trees on the treatment plots responded to thinning by
producing wood with significantly lower relative density than those o
n the control plot. This trend continued much longer than reported for
other pines and could negatively affect pulp yield or mechanical prop
erties of lumber. Enhanced earlywood growth caused a drop in the propo
rtion of latewood that resulted in the decline in density. Thinning ma
y have improved moisture availability during the early and middle seas
on and encouraged earlywood growth. Density and growth rate difference
s became apparent soon after treatment. Early, rapid, and inexpensive
estimates of the product potential of younger thinning trials are poss
ible using the techniques demonstrated here.