Wood Properties and Quality

Trees in continuous cover forestry (CCF) typically form very narrow rings at young ages in suppressed positions but can grow very quickly at older ages in dominant positions, maintaining long-lived crowns. CCF trees have slightly higher mean wood density in stems than rotation forestry (RF) trees. CCF trees have better fiber properties for pulp than RF trees. CCF trees have a relatively short stem section of small dead knots in sawn timber. CCF trees have a relatively long section of large green knots in sawn timber. Sawn goods produced from spruce logs yielded with the selection system do not differ markedly from those from RF. The application of a shelterwood system with overstorey retention for Scots pine facilitates the production of very high-grade timber.