Summary

Forest cultivation includes economic activities related to the realisation of the improvement of cuttings, improving the state of the trees and the enrichment of biodiversity.

The aim of the improvement of cuttings is to achieve better quality of wood production, increase the resistance of trees to the influence of biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic factors, and to regulate the species composition and the canopy closure.

The improvement of the cuttings is divided into early and late cleaning, and early and late thinning.

Early and late cleaning are the cultivation procedures which are performed during the plantation period and the young forest period. They aim at improving the cultivation quality of the stand. Cultivation considerations have the highest priority. Early cleaning is conducted in the early stage of the development of the stand (up to 15 years of age). While the late cleaning consist of a series of cultivation procedures performed in young forests (with 11-20 years of age, but no more than 30 years) until the natural die-back of trees takes place. These procedures are aimed at improving the conditions for the development of trees with good cultivation quality.

After the cleaning is over the thinning is carried out. The purpose of thinning is to gradually remove excessive trees mainly because of their gradually increasing necessities of life. In this way the conditions of growth and the development of the remaining trees are also improved. Thinning increases the growth of stand volume due to the enhanced development of tree crowns and thus the trunk thickness. Thinning also improves the technical and sanitary quality of the stand by removing the defective and diseased trees, which are economically useless.

Early thinning (when the stand is 31 to 40 years old) is used in the stands showing vigorous growth in height. Tree crowns in these stands have the ability to grow to the sides and fill the gaps with their branches after the previous development of cuttings. During this period, early thinning should not be too intense, because it might undermine the process of self-pruning. Typically, early thinning is repeated every 3-5 years.

Late thinning is used in stands of middle age classes and maturing stands, in which there is low crown closure. As an indication, it is assumed that late thinning is made in stands which are 30-50 years old depending on the quality of habitat, the species composition and the planting method. Late thinning is repeated approximately every 5-10 years. The intensity of these cuts depends on the felling age of the stand, its species composition, sanitary state and health state of trees, and their main purpose is to prepare the trees for their natural reproduction.

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