what is the difference betweeplantation forests and native/old growth forests?

Question

This is foe Technology Mandatory

Answer 1

G'day mate. I hope this isn't to long winded.

Plantation forests are man made. They are uniform in shape and design, usually close to being a mono culture / single species, trees are all the same age, usually located on fertile soil, good access for harvesting, low on diversity, maintained and pruned by man, can be extremely susceptible to wild fire (depends on age and species), grown for a specific market, labour intensive pre harvesting, relatively easy to harvest, eventually clear fell over several harvests, basis for genetic forest research.

Old growth forest (if there is still such a thing left standing in Australia) is basically the opposite of all the above. The main differences are, forest is diverse with many species, uneven age trees, can be manipulated by man (silviculture) but not initiated my man, not always clear felled (selection logging, shelterwood, seed tree). The most important difference is that natural forest has many values other than timber production (water quality, recreation, habitat etc...)

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Plantation forests are essentially pine trees, planted by large corporations such as Hudson Pulp and Paper Co. The trees are harvested periodically and replanted.

Old growth forests are composed of trees native to a particular region. The forest is a natural mix of pines, beech, elm, oak, etc.

Back in the 60's I worked for Hudson Pulp and Paper, as a pine tree planter. I saw heavy equipment move into old growth forests, cut down all the oak, sweet gum, maple, cypress trees,
bulldoze the area flat, and plant pine trees... And had the nerve to brag that they were practicing conservation!

Answer 3

A plantation forest is planted by man. A native/old growth forest is natural.

Answer 4

some human beings on the following imagine that we ought to address the woodland or that the woodland is extra constructive off even as cleared. If this were so then why have forests existed for 1000's of years with out our administration. most of the topics forests face are human appropriate. as an get mutually we've altered the water table, made acid rain and adjusted rainfall patters through purely land clearing on my own. i imagine that the in ordinary words timber which could be decrease down are those planted in certain for the objective because land clearing and logging has led to an excellent relief contained in the area of organic land even with the undeniable fact that out the international. also many animals and plant life cant keep up even small interactions with people or alteration to habitat so even selective logging nevertheless impacts negatively on many woodland creatures. Bush has a detrimental record on our environment and needs to set an get mutually through utilising in ordinary words sustainable timber from plantations. it type of feels now that u . s . of america will sacrifice something to maintain monetary improve be it its organic surroundings or its courting with different international locations.

Answer 5

Dear frnd,
Plantation forests are lot more planned by the people. Like government or authority or any private party grow trees in a very planned fashion.... all will be taken into consideration like how much the gap should be there between the plants .. how much water is neccessary for them daily.. proper cutting of twigs... removal of weeds..and a lot more so that they grow better and in a desired way.....

on other hand... native forests grow all naturally and they suffer all kind of forces.. like man intervention... scarecity of water or temprature... weeds... soil erosion and other factors...

In more wider term ...in plantation forest the chances of development of desired plants is a lot high and depends a lot on the humans while in native forests their chances totally depends on natural condition and weather...

Answer 6

"Plantation forests" tend to be pretty much all the same kind of tree, all the same kind of undergrowth (what there is of it), all the same kind of animal and insect life. Old Growth forests have had time to evolve, so that there are old dead trees that fall and allow shorter plants to come up in the clearings where they were; the older the forest the more biodiversity there is. Old Growth forests are rich and mysterious - Plantation forests (aka "tree farms") don't have much to offer beyond one kind of tree for harvesting.

Answer 7

Old growth is diverse, with twenty kinds of trees and a mature understory. I've seen old growth with rhododendrons that were 20 feet high.

Answer 8

plantation forests are rows of one type of tree.
native old growth forests are scatterings of several types of trees
of diffrent ages and sizes.

Answer 9

Plantation is grown by people old growth grows by itself

Answer 10

sounds like school ?? to me... best to go to ask jeeves and get something that you can use. but basically its natural growth of many many undisturbed years verses man planed and planted growth of recent years...