Study on growth and silvicultural analysis of young stand of Quercus castaneifolia C.A.M. in Neyrang forest, Nowshahr

Oak (Quercus castaneifolia C.A.M.) is one of the most important forest tree species in the Caspian region of Iran and every year huge lands are purely planted by it. The aim of the research was to study characteristics of an even-aged planted stand (25 years old, 1.2 ha) of the species and proper management which lead to suitable tree form in future. For this purpose, diameter at breast height (dbh) and total height of all the trees and volume of 30 sample trees were measured. Results showed that although tree plantation was made only by oak species, but the stand today consists of 10 species as follows: oak (85.2%), horn beam (7.9%), iron wood (0.7%) and other species, including velvet, Cappadocian maple, elm, alder, and lime tree (6.2%). Most of the trees were classified at three diameter classes, including 10, 15 and 20 cm. diameter and height increment for trees with average dbh and total height of 15.3 m. and 16.4 m, were 6 and 66 mm. respectively. Mean dbh and height increment rates were 0.6 and 66 cm per year, respectively. Mean volume increment was 5.13 silve per year per ha. It can be concluded that according to our findings and other similar research results that diameter growth of oak in Iran is faster than its growth in Europe and might be utilized at lower age stage for veneer industry. Furthermore, stand structure in respect to trees form and mixture rate was studied and its trend process into mixed stand was silviculturally discussed and analyzed.