A forest stand is a contiguous

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s sufficiently uniform in composition, structure, age, size, class, distribution, spatial arrangement, site quality, condition, or location to distinguish it from adjacent communities. A

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

is a "collection of stands" also utilizing the practices of

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...

. Stand level modelling is a type of modelling in the

forest sciences Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...

in which the main unit is a forested stand.

Stand description

A forest stand is commonly described as in 10ths or 10%s. Thus a ratio could be given of: 3 Ponderosa pines, 2 mangrove trees, 5 silver spruces. If there was a mixed stand that stand mix could be described as mixed up to 10%, mixed 10–40% and a mixed stand over that amount. The form of mixing of the tree types is commonly given as: * individuals – when there are a few unconnected trees of a type. * troop – up to 5 trees connected of one type. * group – when there are more than 5 trees, but they are shorter than a harvestable tree. * thicket – when there are more than 5 trees, but they are taller than a harvestable tree to around 0.5 ha. * rotten group (cluster) – a packed together standing aggregate of trees, trees in the rotten group have different heights and different depths or a stripwise arrangement. Rotten is from German, ''Rotte'' and means pack. These trees are linked together in small rotten groups separated by bigger interstices. This means they are ideal for mountain

afforestation Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees (forestation) in an area where there was no previous tree cover. Many government and non-governmental organizations directly engage in afforestation programs to create forests a ...

Stand spacing

A stand's spacing may be described by the

crown cover Crown closure, in forestry, is a measure of forest canopy coverage. Crown closure and crown cover are two slightly different measures of the forest canopy and that determine the amount of light able to penetrate to the forest floor. Crown closu ...

of the trees. It can thus be delimited as: *Packed – the crowns all overlap when looked at from above *Closed – the crowns all touch, but do not overlap *Light – when there is space between the crowns that is even *Spacey/gappy – when a few trees are close and yet there are many clearings between these little groups

Purpose

Stands are not logical, ecologically defined management units. Instead they have evolved from the Normalwald concept, which was predicated on the idea of harvesting efficiency and thus that forest land was primarily to generate income from timber production. Stands allow easier forest inventory and

planning Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. The evolution of forethought, the capacity to think ahead, is consi ...

. The concept has by way of extension been applied across all forestry practice in the world, but originated in the '' Mitteleuropa'' of the late 18th and early 19th century with the

mercantilist Mercantilism is an economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy. It promotes imperialism, colonialism, tariffs and subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal. The policy aims to reduce a ...

tradition, Prussian education and emergence of modern silviculture. Along with the Normalwald concept has come the idea that stands are standardized in terms of size, species mix, age class and other tree metrics and that forestry should aim to impose this on nature where it has not existed up till now.

Alternatives

As stand is from an economic timber forestry perspective, it is very focused on the tree element of forests. It is not considerate of the other elements within a forest such as shrubs, animals or topography and alternative terms may better fit ecological or other land value purposes within forests. The English term grove is one example. Also proposed is ''eco-unit''. Other terms may also work, but be on different scales, such as

copse Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeated ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

. To be useful in silviculture such terms must be clearly defined and consistently applied. Lacking that stand is likely to remain the preferred unit to be used by foresters and others managing forests, despite its limitations.

References

{{Reflist Forest modelling Forest ecology

Stand description

Stand spacing

Purpose

Alternatives

See also

References