Some alarming trends in commercial forest acreage and pine growing stocks have been developing over the course of four Forest Surveys in eastern Virginia; Forest Survey Unit 1. The importance of the timber resource to the region's economy has brought about a need for research into the long-run timber prospects.
Long-run timber output potentials in eastern Virginia are primarily dependent upon two factors: Prospective changes in commercial forest acreage and the intensity with which the forest acreage is managed. An analysis of past trends and a study of the opinions of knowledgeable persons in eastern Virginia lead to the estimate that commercial forest acreage will dec~ease approximately 9 percent by 2020. As for timber management intensity, the study commences with data on cubic-foot yields for the five major forest types, as related to stand age and stocking. From these data, potential yield, per acre and total, is estimated for each class of forest owner.
The study finds that in eastern Virginia, nonindustrial private owners are managing their timber much more intensively than generally supposed. In fact, their timber output per acre is on a par with that of public and forest industry owners. If pine timber output is to be increased in the long run, apparently conversion of hardwood stands to pine, not more intensive management of existing stands, will be the means. / Master of Science
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/64744 |
| Date | January 1978 |
| Creators | Hassler, Curt C. |
| Contributors | Forestry and Forest Products |
| Publisher | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | ix, 151 leaves, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | OCLC# 9681862 |
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