Effect of different management on quality and value production of pure beech stands in Slovakia

Value production is one of the most important information for comparing different management strategies in forestry. Although the value production of forest stands is affected by various factors (stem and assortment quality, stem dimension, stem injury, price of assortments), thinning can be considered as one of the most important one. This paper aims at the evaluation of qualitative and value production in homogeneous beech stands, which were managed by two different thinning types for period of 45 to 55 years: (i) – heavy thinning from below (C grade according to the German forest research institutes released in 1902) and (ii) – Štefančík´s free-crown thinning. The third variant was control (iii) – subplot with no interventions. Silvicultural quality characteristics of the lower half of the stem were assessed using a 4-class scale (A – the best quality, D – the worst quality). Assortment structure (commercial quality) was estimated for each stem by an assortment model developed in the past. Nearly 3,000 individual trees aged from 83 to 105 years from 23 subplots established across the Slovakia territory were assessed. The highest volume of the best silvicultural quality of stems (A class) has been reached in forests where Štefančík´s free-crown thinning was applied (57 – 85%) while the lowest (22 – 56%) on subplots with no management. The proportion of two best commercial quality assortments (I + II) was highest in forests managed by heavy thinning from below (21 – 29%) and the lowest when no treatment was applied (7 – 19%). The highest value production (expressed in € ha⁻¹) was reached in the forests treated by free-crown thinning. Results suggested the overall positive impact of thinning on the increase of value production in beech forests. Particularly, the free-crown thinning focusing on selection of best quality trees should be preferred as it leads, besides its sufficient value production, to a higher vertical differentiation of the beech forests.