Growth and yield comparisons for red pine, white spruce and black spruce plantations in northwestern Ontario

Abstract

Intensive forest management for wood production requires that we identify our most productive forest lands as well as the most productive and most commercially valuable tree species that should be managed on these lands. The Thunder Bay Spacing Trial established in 1950 provides growth and yield comparisons on a productive site for red pine, white spruce, and black spruce. Our analysis based on six remeasurements from 1983 to 2007 show that red pine has produced more than twice the volume of white spruce and about three times the volume of black spruce. The greater volume for red pine in comparison to the spruces is attributed to taller trees, larger average diameters and more basal area.