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- Title
Time-Since-Death and Its Effect on Wood from Beetle-Killed Engelmann Spruce in Southwest Colorado.
- Authors
Vaughan, Damon; Mackes, Kurt; Webb, James B
- Abstract
Extensive spruce beetle mortality in southwest Colorado has motivated land managers to respond with landscape scale tree harvesting projects. The byproducts from these projects could be a source of revenue and a valuable raw material, but currently little is known about the effect of tree mortality on wood quality. We destructively sampled 86 Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii ) trees from ten plots on the Rio Grande National Forest, and analyzed tree rings to determine mortality year. Time-since-death and other variables such as diameter, elevation, and bark retention were used to develop models predicting the deterioration rate from beetle mortality. In a separate mill study, we harvested eleven trees from the Rio Grande National Forest and milled them to dimensional lumber. Lumber tally was recorded, and boards were graded by a certified grader. The field study found that the severity of seasoning checks was most strongly correlated with tree diameter, and the effect of time-since-death was most pronounced at larger diameters. In the mill study, older dead trees produced a lower percentage of select structural lumber than control trees. Results from this study will help land managers use known information such as mortality year and average tree diameter to prioritize treatment areas and maximize sawtimber recovery.
- Subjects
PUERTO Rico; ENGELMANN spruce; WOOD; WHITE pine weevil; LOGGING; FOREST reserves
- Publication
Forest Science, 2018, Vol 64, Issue 3, p316
- ISSN
0015-749X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/forsci/fxx017