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Much of today's southern pine forest resulted from natural
seeding and planting on abandoned agricultural lands from 1930 through 1950.
Young stands grew rapidly with little or no tending. Insect problems developed
and intensified as stands became crowded and vigor declined. Silviculture offers
the most promising and long-lasting means of reversing this trend. Studies
in the mountains of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee have
shown that stands severely attacked by the southern pine beetle were densely
stocked, slow growing, and had a large proportion of overmature pine sawtimber.
Silvicultural prevention methods can be broken down into three
categories:
1)Spacing: The distance between planted pine trees and tree
rows.
2)Thinning: The mechanical removal of rows or individual
trees to reduce overall stocking in the stand.
3)Harvesting: The mechanical removal of trees from the
site.
If these three preventative measures are taken, landowners will gain some
advantage over beetle attack.
If you have a stand of trees that have been attacked by the Southern Pine
Beetle, how do you determine whether to start over or to continue with
management of the remaining trees, whether pine or hardwood? University
of Tennessee Extension Associate Larry Tankersley has addressed just that issue
in his publication on stand
determination.
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