Overstory and regeneration data from the "Rehabilitation of cutover mixedwood stands" study at the Penobscot Experimental Forest: 2nd edition

This data package contains crop tree, overstory, sapling, and regeneration data collected at the Penobscot Experimental Forest in Maine between 2008 and 2017. These data were collected as part of the project titled "Rehabilitation of cutover mixedwood stands: An economic and silvicultural assessment of alternatives" as described in Appendix C of FS-NRS-07-08-01 "Silvicultural effects on composition, structure and growth of northern conifers in the Acadian Forest Region 2008 study plan" (also known as the Compartment Management Study, see Kenefic et al. 2015). While the Rehabilitation study was conducted within two management units (MUs) of the Compartment Management Study (CMS) the data for the Rehabilitation study are independent of the CMS. The Rehabilitation study examined two levels of intervention treatments against controls in two stands that had been subjected to repeated commercial clearcutting harvests, last occurring 20 and 25 years before. The intervention treatments were 1) moderate treatment, in which crop trees were identified and released, and 2) intensive treatment, in which crop trees were released, unacceptable growing stock was removed, and fill planting of red spruce was conducted. Available data include crop tree species, locations, diameter at beast height (DBH), height, and mortality; overstory species, locations, and DBH; regeneration tally by species; and sapling species and DBH.
The purpose of the Rehabilitation (Rehab) Study is to evaluate methods of rehabilitating degraded northern conifer stands. Specifically, to test the hypothesis that short-term investment in silvicultural rehabilitation of degraded stands improves the composition, quality, and productivity relative to no treatment, and that the intensity of rehabilitation will affect the degree of success in obtaining desired long-term outcomes. Findings will reveal economic consequences, and allow us to develop urgently needed management guidelines for degraded stands, thus serving a critical need in the Northern Forest.
We strongly recommend that users read the study plans and accompanying documentation provided with the full data publication download before proceeding with data summary or analysis. Refer to the end of the Entity and Attributes section of the metadata for a list of commonly used acronyms and abbreviations. This data publication is an update to the first edition of these data (Kenefic et al. 2016). We recommend the use of this second edition which includes an additional inventory completed in 2017 and other minor updates in the way data are recorded. See \Supplements\PEF_RehabStudy__DBEChanges.csv for a list of the changes between the first and second edition of these data.