Management of Blue Pine (Pinus wallichiana) – Species Management
MANAGEMENT OF BLUE PINE
- Local Name: Kail, Biar
- Trade Name: Blue Pine
- Scientific Name: Pinus wallichiana
- It occurs between 4500 to 10,000 feet elevation.
- It is found in Ayubia, Gallies, Mansehra, Murree, Galiat, Abbottabad, Kaghan, Swat District, Dir Upper, AJK (Leepa valley), Shorgran, Naithagali, Baragali, Shangla District, FATA (Tirah, Kurram) Chitral.
o OBJECTIVES OF MANAGEMENT:
The Special objects of management include:-
· To convert the uneven-aged forest into regular.
· To obtain a maximum yield on a sustained basis.
· To meet the demands of local people.
· Deodar the same as blue pine.
· Fir & Spruce as blue pine.
· Carbon Sequestration.
o DESCRIPTION:
· The crown is conical.
· The needles are in fives, 10 to 20 cm long and bluish to grey in color.
· Cones ripen and shed seeds from late September to early November, about 18 months after pollination.
· There are two, winged seeds beneath each cone scale.
· Good seed year occur every alternate year.
· Seed weight 12,500 to 22,000/ kg depending upon altitude, aspect, and other locality factors.
· Germinative capacity varies from 60 to 70% and plant percent 55-80.
· It is considered a fast-growing tree.
· Yield of 5 to 8 m3/ha/year are recorded on different quality sites.
· Sapwood is white and the heartwood is pink.
o SILVICULTURE SYSTEM
i. Blue pine forests are largely managed under the irregular shelterwood system.
ii. In K.P.K. single selection system.
Ø Rotation 100 years
Ø Regeneration 25 years
Ø Periodic Block: The forests are divided into four periodic blocks on the basis of the predominant age group of the trees; P.B. I,II,III,IV.
|
Period Block
|
From
|
To
|
|
P.B. I
|
76 years
|
100 years
|
|
P.B. II
|
51 years
|
75 years
|
|
P.B. III
|
26 years
|
50 years
|
|
P.B. IV
|
1 years
|
25 years
|
o FELLINGS IN PERIODIC BLOCK I AREAS
P.B.I areas are felled on the following pattern:-
1. Seed Bearers in the diameter class 50 to 70 cm are retained at the rate of 25 to 30 trees per hectare.
2. A large number of seed bearers should be3 retained on steep to precipitous slopes and broken ground.
3. All the trees except seed bearers are to be felled if regeneration is coming up are quietly
4. During fellings in P.B.I areas, small groups of pole crop (over 0.25 Hectare in Area) are retained as a part of the future crop.
5. If needed planting of seedlings raised in the nursery is done to restock the forest.
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Naeem Javid Muhammad Hassani is working as Conservator of Forests in Balochistan Forest & Wildlife Department (BFWD). He is the CEO of Tech Urdu (techurdu.net) Forestrypedia (forestrypedia.com), All Pak Notifications (allpaknotifications.com), Essayspedia, etc & their YouTube Channels). He is an Environmentalist, Blogger, YouTuber, Developer & Vlogger.