Effect of severe lopping on radial growth of Lebanon Oak (Quercus libani Oliv.) trees in Baneh adjacent forests

One of the oldest traditional usages of forests is cutting the branches for fodder production. In Iran in some regions of northern Zagros some species specially Lebanon oak (Quercus libani Oliv.) is used to provide fodder. For this reason each family normally has a forest region to meet cattle's fodder and fuel wood by cutting tree branches. Since trees could record this phenomenon in their tree rings, in this study we tried to investigate the tree rings by using of Dendrochronology to understand the effect of human activity like cutting branches on tree rings formation. According to this idea, two stands of oak forests that located in regions near the village and regions that located in low human interruption (holly places like cemeteries) have been selected. Twenty thick and healthy trees were selected from each region and samples were taken in the shape of disks and increment cores. After preparing samples surface, ring width of the trees were measured by binocular and LINTAB measurement table with 0.01 mm precision. Cross dating have been done using TSAP software. Growth curves of trees in interrupted region showed significant growth reduction in comparison with growth curves of trees in preserved region. In addition, this type of usage of forests will change the normal growth form of the trees and will increase the negative pointer years as an index of the radial growth reduction in interrupted region. It looks that the severity of this traditional way of cutting branches is increased during the last 100 years.