Forestal Valdivia Chile. Left 23 yr. old Plantation P. radiata. Right 19 yr. stand P. radiata. Thinned using oxen to 450s/ha. Photo credit Dick McCarthy Gottstein fellowship 1992
USA Plantation Forests Period 2000– 2004. Source: Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 545–556, 2017 In the USA, forest plantings in the southern states from the 1930’s with Pinus spp as loblolly pine. P. taeda and slash pine P. elliottii.
Mechanised fifth row out row thinning with selection thinning of remaining four rows. Photo credit Dick McCarthy USA/Canada APMF study tour 1982. The main plantations in tropical America prior to 1950, were on a small scale for fuelwood, railway sleepers and mine pit props. The development of Australia’s plantation estate has gone through a series of phases over the past 110 plus years. Motivated by a need for softwood timber and import replacement, radiata pine was the species of choice for the early plantations in temperate eastern Australia and in Western Australia Maritime pine was also planted, demonstrating a pragmatic approach to species selection. In northern east coast Australia, more suitable species of softwood were planted including A. cunninghamii (Hoop pine - a local species), Caribbean pine and Slash
27
