Clear-cuttings effect in ecological restoration of the Norway spruce stands damaged by red deer

Year 2018, Volume: 6 Issue: 1, 23 - 34, 24.02.2018

Cristian Gheorghe Sidor , Radu Vlad

Abstract

In the recent decades, in Norway spruce forests have been reported ecological imbalances caused by red deer by bark-stripping, with a great impact on stability and productivity of the stand. When the economic efficiency of the Norway spruce stands starts to decrease, due to the wood volume with stem decay, an ecological restoration of this ecosystems is imposed. This study reports a case study from the north of Eastern Carpathians. It presents the results of nine experiments from two of the most affected area from North of Romania by red deer, in order to test the success of applying some forestry treatments: the progressive clear-strip cutting (stands more than 10 hectares) and the clear cutting on small areas (stand less than 10 hectares), with reference to strip width, the direction of the strips, the felling direction, the regeneration process and the cuts return interval. Number of extracted trees∙ha^-1 varied between 1340 and 324 and the extracted volume was between 457 m³∙ha^-1 and 181 m³∙ha^-1. The proportion of stem decay volume was important (between 23% and 42%), being related to the stand age. In stands over 50 years, the wood volume with stem decay is less than 30% (23% to 27%), while in those over 35(40) years, it is greater than 33% (34% to 42%). A successful regeneration (natural and artificial), in the time elapsed from the implementation of the previous forestry treatments (about 25 years), support the success of the applied ecological restoration. The progressive clear-strip cutting and clear cuttings on small areas, as part of the ecological restoration of the red deer damaged Norway spruce stands, showed good results, and could be considered as a tool for the ecological restoration of these stands.

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