Description
Forest management practices related to tree harvesting and regeneration in Alberta have historically attempted to replicate the effects of natural disturbance patterns. In order to maintain a sustained yield, and an ecosystem based sustainable forest management practice that aims at duplicating or potentially exceeding natural forest yields, and that emphasizes the maintenance of diversity among forest types, an assessment of the regeneration performance on the harvested areas is required. This assessment includes the quantification of regenerated site potentials, as commonly measured by site index. Growth intercept models were developed in this study to estimate site index based on a few years of juvenile height growth above a conveniently selected base height. In addition to being able to be used to predict site index in juvenile stands, these growth intercept models can also be used as the basis for projecting regenerated yields, evaluating silvicultural alternatives, and...