PULP&
PAPER
. Pulpwood Section
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VOLUME TO TRIPLE IN 30 YEARS. In northwest
Washington at Wildcat Creek the stand contained 650
trees and 5,000 cu. ft. per acre at 35 years. By age 65, the
number of trees will probably be reduced to one third and
the cubic volume tripled.
ALMOST COMPLETE SHADE. In the Pacific North­
west, a dense crown canopy, which admits little light to
the forest floor, is normal in young hemlo<;k stands. Except
under small openings, understory vegetation is almost
completely shaded out.
Don't Sell Western Hemlock Short
Young growth of this popular pulpwood species has remarkable
growth record in Pacific Northwest rain forests
By
EDWARD J. DIMOCK II
Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Exp eriment Station, U.S. Forest Service • Remembering the poor quality of
Eastern hemlock, early-day lumber­
men were quick to discriminate
against its Western counterpart. Not
so long ago Western hemlock was lit­
tle more than a nuisance to the logger
-merely something to be brushed
aside in the headlong race for
Douglas-fir sawtimber, This stigma
has hung on until quite recently.
Now, with today's heavy demand for
paper and chemical cellulose prod­
ucts, Western hemlock plays a vital
role in our economy' as a leading
source of high-quality pulpwood.
Because of availability, old-growth
timber stands continue to supply the
great bulk of the Northwest's present
pulpwood demand. However, the
time is not far off when young-growth
stands will have to bear a large and
rapidly increasing share of the supply
burden. How productive, then, will
our young forests of hemlock and
other "pulpwood" species be in the
future? Will they adequately meet
expected industrial needs?
We can, of course, only speculate
about the answers to these questions.
A necessary key to such speculation
is a thorough understanding of yield
potentials on pulpwood-growing sites
-the sort of understanding that can
come only from records on permanent
growth plots.
Douglas-Fir Outproduced
Several decades of fruitful research
Reprinted from PULP
& PAPER, December
have provided northwestem foresters
with a fairly good concept of manage­
ment possibilities in young-growth
Douglas-fir. However, preoccupation
with Douglas-fir has somewhat limited
our present knowledge and thinking,
and many will readily admit their
comparative ignorance of growth and
yield among other important species.
Hence, it is not surprising that some
are just recently "discovering" the
tremendous productive capacity of the
once-despised Western hemlock-a
species that at younger ages can un­
questionably outproduce Douglas-fir
in net yield per acre!
Optimum growing conditions for
Western hemlock occur on the west
side of Washington's Olympic Penin­
sula. Though much of the timber
there is old growth, typical of that
1958 Purchased by the Forest Service for Official Use Stand age and
plot location
(d1·ainage)
N11mbe1·
of
plots
Forest
type
Site
inde.v
Hemlock
170
Hemlock
200
3 5 years:
N11mber
of
trees1
Feet
Wildcat Creek
Two
W1 infield Creek
Three
Average (wtd)
650
Volmne
Basal
area1
C11bic2
Sq. ft.
Cu. f t.
Intern.
twle (%")3
Bd.-ft.
27,150
5,000
185
377
238
7,650
45,800
486
217
6,590
38,350
55 years:
Owl Creek
Two
Spr.-hem.
170
118
253
11,050
73,550 Matheny Creek
Three
Hemlock
170
310
291
12,260
78,550 233
276
11,780
76,550
198
299
14,700
99,800
Average (wtd)
65 years:
Shale Creek
Two
160
Hemlock
1All trees over 1.5 in. diameter at breast height.
2All trees over 5.5 in. dbh (Excludes stump and top above 4-in. diameter).
3International rule (;x[-in. kerf) includes all trees over 7.5 in. dbh (Excludes top above 6-in. diameter).
TABLE I. Stand statistics for 12 growth plots in young-gro wth Western hemlock and Sitka spmce-hemlock stands in
northwestern Washington, 1956. (Per-acre basis)
found in the coastal forests of the
Pacific Northwest, extensive even­
aged stands of young growth are
scattered throughout.
In Jan. 1921 a violent windstorm
leveled vast acreages of mature tim­
ber on the peninsula. This storm was
the forerunner for many hemlock and
Sitka spruce-hemlock stands now
about 35 years old. Other young
stands of varying ages also occur, and
these are presumably the indirect
product of similar winter storms­
though some undoubtedly have fol­
lowed fire. Such young stands afford
the forester excellent opportunities to
appraise hemlock increment and
yield.
Stud y Plots Install ed
During the summer of 1951, the
state of Washington installed 12 fifth­
acre permanent sample plots to study
development of young-growth hem­
lock on lands lying between the Hoh
and Queets Rivers (Olympic Penin­
sula) . Ten of the plots are in pure
hemlock; two, in a spruce-hemlock
mixture. Site quality is high on all
plots (Site Index 160-200) , and three
age classes (30, 50, and 60 years in
1951) are represented.
Cooperati!ig with the state, the
Forest Service remeasured the plots
during the summer of 1956. This first
remeasurement already shows the
rapid growth that may be anticipated
on better sites in this area-even in
the short span of five years. Future
remeasurements at periodic intervals
will chart the dynamic course of
stand development as these repre­
sentative plots mature.
Laid out in clusters of two or three,
the 12 plots sample stands in five dif­
ferent locations. It is reasonable, then,
to average plot data in each cluster,
thereby producing five composite
plots to facilitate comparison. Simi­
larly, the five composite plots may be
further combined into three age
groups.
Table 1 presents stand statistics as
determined for these combined classi­
fications. Conversion of cubic feet to
cordwood tally (82 cu. ft. per cord)
approximates utilization to a close
pulpwood standard. Likewise, the In­
ternational measure is a good estimate
of actual sawmill tally.
Volumes per acre by International
rule range from 38,000 bd.-ft. in the
youngest stand to 100,000 bd.-ft. at
65 years. By pulpwood standards,
plots in the 35-year-old stand support
about 80 cords per acre; in the 55­
year-old stand, about 145 cords; and
in the 65-year-old stand, nearly 180
cords.
Scaled by the Scribner rule for
trees larger than ll.5 in. to an 8-in.
top,
corresponding volumes are
25,000, 63,000, and 84,000 bd.-ft. for
the three age classes.
To those familiar with the yield of
Douglas-fir, the above figures may
seem startling. For example, cubic
volumes for the three age classes
sampled in the hemlock and spruce­
hemlock types range from 25 to 39%
greater than corresponding values for
Douglas-fir as presented 'in published
yield tables1 (figure 1) .
average tree is 9.0 in. dbh at 35 years,
increasing to 14'.7 in. at 55 years and
16.6 in. at 65. Average basal area for
the three age groups is also striking:
217 sq. ft. at 35 years, 276 sq. ft. at
55 years, and nearly 300 sq. ft. in
the 65-year-old stand.
Differences in site quality are also
discernible between the two compos­
ite plots in the 35-year-old grouping.
Winfield Creek (Site I) supports
53% more cubic volume per acre
than Wildcat Creek (Site II) . Spread
in board-foot volume is even greater.
Due to sampling variation, however,
the best site II plot at Wildcat Creek
c
65YR.
S.l.l60
W:) Douglas- fir rw.l (Yield table basis) m Western Hemlock W ( Sample plat basis)
__
1McArdl , Richard E. The yield of
Douglas-fir in the Pacific Northwest. U.S.
Dept. Agr. Tech. BuL 201, 74 pp., illus.
Rev. 1949.
55 YR.
S.l.l70
AGE AND SITE INDEX
Fewer Steins
The number of stems per acre con­
tinues to decrease rapidly after 35 years, wher()[\S diameter of the aver­
age-sized ree steadily increases. The 35YR.
S.I.ISS
J;
.!1 Two of twelve plots ore in the sprucehemlock type
FIGURE I. Cubic volume yield of
young-growth Douglas-fir and West­
ern hemlock at specific ages.
·
has slightly greater basal area and
cubic volume than the poorest site I
plot in the Winfield Creek cluster.
Up to this point, static figures only
have been considered. What has oc­
curred in the five years since these
growth and yield plots were estab­
lished? Again grouped by age classes,
the plots show that growth dming the
5-year period did anything but stand
still! (table 2).
Gross periodic annual increment
approaches 4 cords per acre in the
35-year-old stand, and equals or
slightly exceeds this figure in the two
older age groups. Net increment is
better than 2,000 bd.-ft. in the 30-3.5
and 50-55 year growth periods, but
falls below 1,500 bd.-ft. after 60
years.
This reduced net growth in the
oldest age class is largely due to
heavy windthrow (primarily as a re­
sult of adjacent clear cutting) that
occured on one of the two plots at
Shale Creek. Furthermore, the slight
reduction in gross increment at this
age (all measures) is probably a
vagary of sampling rather than a real
indication of declining vigor or lower
site.
Mortality Variable
Mortality on individual plots was so
variable, ranging from 0 to 311 cu. ft.,
that the extent of its importance in
stand development is still far from
clear. Such losses, however, cannot
be ignored for they represent a con­
siderable sacrifice of site productivity.
Though it is logical to anticipate
significantly greater mortality losses
with increasing stand age, the heavy
death rate in the two older age groups
is undoubtedly abnormal. For this
reason, net increment figures should
be evaluated with due consideration
for probable cause of their fluctua­
tion.
Gross increment, on the other hand,
is in itself a comparatively stable
Vol11me
Age sp(/n
(years)
30-35
50-55
60-65
Item
Basal
area1
C11bic2
Sq. ft.
Cu. ft.
7.2
303
Inter-n.
mle (lf.l"):l
Bd.-ft.
Gross increment
Mortality
Net increment
1.0
10
25
6.2
293
2,215
Gross increment
Mortality
Net increment
6.2
331
2,405
1.9
54
304
4.3
277
2,101
2,075
Gross increment
Mortality
Net increment
2,240
5.2
328
4.0
168
665
1.2
160
1,410
1All trees over 1.5 in. diameter at breast height.
2All trees over 5.5 in. dbh (Excludes stump and top above 4-in. diameter).
3Internarional rule (7:1-in, kerf) includes all trees over 7.5 in. dbh (Excludes top above
6-in. diameter).
TABLE 2. Periodic annual growth and mortality on 12 sample plots in young·
growth W estem hemlock and Sitka spruce-hemlock stands in northwestern
'Vashington, by three age classes, 1951-56. (Per-acre basis)
figure-particularly for basal area and
cubic volume measures. Thus, greater
reliance may be placed on volumetric
comparisons involving gross incre­
ment, which is the sum of net incre­
ment and mortality.
On the basis of unpublished normal
yield tables for 'Vestern hemlock, the
12 study plots are for the most part
understocked in both number of
trees and volume per acre. Neverthe­
less, many of the plots that are under­
stocked in number of trees approach
hemlock yield-table stocking in terms
of basal area and cubic volume.
Volumes and basal areas for three
plots even slightly exceed yield-table
values. During the period from 1951
to 1956, cubic volume on seven plots
moved closer to the tabular values.
This tendency for the plots to grow
toward "normal" or "full" stocking is
evidence that natural stands tend
toward some central value despite
wide variations in stand density.
High Potential
It seems reasonable to assume, in
conclusion, that the study plots are
fairly representative of the stands in
which they occur. Also, it is obvious
that Western hemlock is an immensely
productive species upon the high
sites to which it seems particularly
suited. However, broad generaliza­
tions based upon these growth plots
should adequately recognize the vari­
ables of site quality and stocking that
profoundly affect yields over sizeable
areas.
Have you been guilty of underrat­
ing the potential yield of this valuable
species? Now may be the time to take
another look.