thinning

A silvicultural intervention for stand tending in pole and tree/timber stages. In contrast to cleaning, thinning focuses on promoting selected trees (crop trees) that correspond to management objectives (positive selection). The competitive situation of the crop trees is improved by removing neighboring trees that suppress them or are of lower quality, thereby increasing growing space and enhancing overall stand quality. Thinning reduces stand density earlier and more strongly than would occur under undisturbed natural dynamics.