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Jeff Barnard

Fisheries Biologist
Pacific Northwest Research Station
11175 Auke Lake Way
Juneau, AK 99801-8791
United States
Phone
907-586-8811

Other Publications

  • The Cave Creek silviculture experiment site, Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. This Sitka spruce stand received precommercial thinning and tree pruning 30 years before this photo was taken. USDA Forest Service photo by Kellen Nelson.

    Tree Pruning Improves Tree Form but not Understory Plant Production

    Precommercial thinning and tree pruning are frequently used together to improve timber quality and wildlife habitat in even-aged Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) stands. Scientists with the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain Research Stations investigated the effects of thinning and pruning in two long-term experiments on the Tongass National Forest, Alaska. They found that pruning can improve log quality for timber applications; however, pruning 50 percent or fewer trees in a stand does not enhance understory plant biomass and deer forage over thinning treatment alone.
    Year
    2023
    Research Station
    Pacific Northwest Research Station
    Principal Investigator(s): Kellen Nelson, Jeff Barnard, Justin S. Crotteau
    State(s)
    Alaska
  • An artificial canopy gap created in a 74-year-old stand at a study site in the Tongass National Forest, Alaska; untreated forest is in the background.

    Deer habitat and southeast Alaska young-growth

    The Tongass National Forest has more than 400,000 acres of young, even-aged stands that have regenerated after harvest in the 1900s. Without management, these stands can develop dense canopies in 15 to 20 years, and these dense canopies can persist for 100 years or more.
    Year
    2017
    Research Station
    Pacific Northwest Research Station
    Principal Investigator(s): Jeff Barnard
    State(s)
    Alaska
Last updated October 4, 2016