Managing Plantation Forests to Provide Short- to Long-Term Supplies of Wood to Streams: A Simulation Study Using New Zealand’s Pine Plantations

Riparian functions such as the recruitment of wood to streams take decades to recover after a clear-fell harvest to the stream edge. The implications of two sets of riparian management scenarios on the short- and long-term recruitment of wood to a hypothetical stream (central North Island, New Zealand) were compared through simulation modeling. In the first set (native forest buffer), a designated treeless riparian buffer was colonized by native forest species after a pine crop (Pinus radiata) had been harvested to the stream bank. In the second set (pine to native forest buffer), native forest species were allowed to establish under the pine canopy in a designated riparian buffer. In general, the volume of wood was greater in streams with wider buffers (5-m to 50-m) and this effect increased with forest age (800 years). The pine to native forest buffer supplied more wood to the stream more quickly, and matched the long-term supply to the stream from the native forest buffer. For the native forest buffer, total wood volume was minimal for the first 70 years and then increased uniformly for the remainder of the simulation. In contrast, the pine to native forest buffer produced a bimodal response in total wood volume with the initial sharp peak at year 100 attributed to pine recruitment and a second more gradual peak lasting for the rest of the simulation, which was similar to levels in the native forest simulations. These results suggest that existing plantations could be an important source of wood to the stream during the first 100+ years of native forest development.