Timber Stand Improvement and Forest Management

Improving the balance of trees in a forest is critical to increasing biodiversity. Several native species of trees have a tendency to take over an area and slowly push out other less aggressive native species. Timber stand improvement allows for some of those more aggressive species to be reduced while giving other species the space and sunlight to further take hold.

Gap clearing and release cutting are other methods that can help introduce new species or increase numbers of less aggressive species. Clearing pockets in the forest to allow for planting is the basis to gap clearing, while release cutting simply clears the area around existing desirable trees.