In plantation forests in parts of Europe, the

tree stump After a tree has been cut and has fallen, the stump or tree stump is usually a small remaining portion of the trunk with the roots still in the ground. Stumps may show the age-defining rings of a tree. The study of these rings is known as dendr ...

s left after

felling Felling is the process of cutting down trees,"Feller" def. 2. and "Felling", def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd ed. via CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press. 2009. an element of the task of logging. The person cutting the trees is ...

are now sometimes pulled out of the ground to supply

wood fuel Wood fuel (or fuelwood) is a fuel such as firewood, charcoal, Woodchips, chips, sheets, wood pellets, pellets, and sawdust. The particular form used depends upon factors such as source, quantity, quality and application. In many areas, wood is th ...

for

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

power stations. The stump is the base of the trunk and the attached woody

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

s. Tree stumps and roots are extracted using a hydraulic head on a tracked

excavator Excavators are heavy equipment (construction), heavy construction equipment primarily consisting of a backhoe, boom, dipper (or stick), Bucket (machine part), bucket, and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The modern excavator's ...

or with a mechanical head equipped by a special tool for tractors. Stump harvesting is expected to provide an increasing component of the woody material required by the woody biomass power sector in Europe. During the 20th century in the United States

longleaf pine The longleaf pine (''Pinus palustris'') is a pine species native to the Southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from East Texas to southern Virginia, extending into northern and central Florida. In this area it is also known as ...

stumps were harvested for extraction of

naval stores Naval stores refers to the industry that produces various chemicals collected from conifers. The term was originally applied to the compounds used in building and maintaining wooden sailing ships. Presently, the naval stores industry are used to ...

from the resinous wood. Rotor stump grinder at work

Sustainability

Stump harvesting is unsuitable on many soils where the removal leads to long term reduction in nutrition or an unacceptable loss of

soil carbon Soil carbon is the solid carbon stored in global Soil, soils. This includes both soil organic matter and Inorganic compound, inorganic carbon as carbonate minerals. It is vital to the soil capacity in our ecosystem. Soil carbon is a carbon sink in ...

. Also, it is necessary that care is taken to avoid areas with archaeology, ecologically sensitive areas, steep slopes, and areas close to streams and rivers. In many situations removal of stumps leads to a further loss of wood with a resulting loss of the potential

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

that depends on wood.

History

Stump harvesting is not a new process. Records of

s being dug out of the ground for wood fuel go back hundreds of years in Europe. It was practiced in the 1970s in Swedish forests before declining in popularity, but is being considered again there now that there is a greater need for fuel wood. In Britain, stumps are removed in some forests for disease control, especially in south-east England. Additionally, they are extracted where restoring plantation forest areas to peat bog for conservation reasons. Recently small scale commercial stump harvesting has started in parts of Scotland to provide fuel for

power stations. In Finland, stumps were at one time used to produce tar and charcoal. In the 1970s, a number of trials were set up in Finland to examine the viability of stump harvesting for woody biomass, but it is only in recent years that it has developed into a large scale commercial operation.

Naval stores

Stump harvesting was an important part of the

industry in the 20th century in the United States. The primary source of naval stores in the United States in the 20th century was the

of the Eastern woodlands of the United States. While turpentine and other products were traditionally obtained by collecting resin from living trees, lumber from the trees was also in demand, and many longleaf pine forests were clear cut, leaving only stumps. After efficient machinery was developed for chipping wood, it became profitable to dig old up pine stumps and extract turpentine and other products from the resinous wood. Other industrial processes for producing naval stores have much reduced the use of pine wood for naval stores.

References

Sources

*Schenk, H.J., and R.B. Jackson. 2002. The global biogeography of roots. ''Ecological Monographs'' 72 (3): 311-328. *Staaf, H. and Olsson, B.A. 2004. Effects of slash removal and stump harvesting on soil water chemistry in a clearcutting in SW Sweden. ''Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research'' 9 (4): 305-310. *Sutton, R.F., and R.W. Tinus. 1983. Root and root system terminology. ''Forest Science Monograph 24'' pp 137. *Phillips, W.S. 1963. Depth of roots in soil. ''Ecology'' 44 (2): 424.

External links

Stump harvesting in SwedenRegeneration after stump harvestingStumps as a resource in FinlandSite selection and good practice for stump harvestingStump harvesting and forest decomposers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stump Harvesting Trees Forest management