Author Description

Commercial thinning is rarely practised in British Columbia, mainly because of an abundance of old-growth forest and a lack of suitable second-growth stands. Not only can it increase value and net revenue from forests by making wood available early, it can also produce large trees at rotation, increase employment, and help overcome wood supply problems. Studies of commercial thinning of western hemlock in the Pacific Northwest suggest that the thinning improves, in varying extents, the growth of residual trees, but that it produces no consistent growth and yield response related to thinning intensity. This report documents growth and yield following 4 levels of single-entry commercial thinning in a 56-year-old coastal western hemlock stand on a good site in the Coastal Western Hemlock Vancouver Island Drier Maritime variant on East Thurlow Island. It is based on 32-year remeasurements and observations from Experimental Project 388.