Ring-barking All Chir Pine in a Mid-Hill Community Forest
Kabhrepalanchok district, 1,850 m elevation. A 46-hectare community forest (CF) used by 210 households is dominated by Chir pine (Pinus roxburghii) planted in the 1980s on about 30 ha of a north-facing slope (25–35 degrees). Canopy closure is 0.6, pine litter is 5–8 cm deep, and a surface fire burned through in three of the last five years. Regeneration of Schima wallichii, Castanopsis indica and Rhododendron arboreum is present but heavily browsed; 90 cattle and 40 goats graze freely. The user group's general assembly has resolved to ring-bark and fell every pine above 20 cm DBH within two years to 'restore broadleaf forest', and has asked the division forest office (DFO) to amend the operational plan accordingly. A nearby hydrology study reports that two springs feeding 12 household taps have declining dry-season flow. The DFO must respond within 30 days. The CFUG is cooperative but has no nursery and a budget of NPR 900,000.
1. Critically evaluate the proposed ring-barking and felling of all Chir pine as a silvicultural prescription. What would you approve, modify or reject, and on what silvicultural and site-protection grounds?
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Reject as written; approve a modified conversion.
- Chir pine is a light-demanding pioneer that established after planting and repeated fire; it is not invading an intact broadleaf stand. Removing every stem above 20 cm at once creates a 30 ha gap on 25–35 degree slopes covered with 5–8 cm of litter - precisely the condition for rill and gully erosion in the first two monsoons.
- Ring-barking is cheap but leaves standing dead trees that fall unpredictably near trails, taps and houses, and it releases advance growth unevenly.
- The real limiting factor for broadleaf regeneration is browsing (90 cattle, 40 goats), not pine shade. Seed sources of Schima and Castanopsis exist; the seedlings are being eaten.
- The claim that pine removal will restore spring flow is not established at this scale; the hydrology evidence is correlational.
Approve instead: strip-coupes on the gentler lower slopes only; retain pine on the ridge, on slopes steeper than 30 degrees, and in 10 m buffers along streams and above both springs; keep 10–15 scattered pines per hectare for stability and possible resin income. Protection from grazing must precede any felling. Refer the amended prescription back to the assembly with an explanation, so the decision is owned locally rather than imposed.
2. Draft a five-year treatment sequence (operations, timing, and grazing/fire rules) that moves the stand toward mixed broadleaf while protecting soil and water.
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Year 0 (Feb–Apr): assembly decision; demarcate protection blocks; cut 3 m fire lines; write grazing rules - stall feeding and cut-and-carry for three years, goats tethered, no free grazing. Establish a small nursery (20,000 seedlings of Schima, Castanopsis, Michelia, Alnus).
Years 1–3 (Nov–Feb): fell 1 ha coupes, three per year, on the lower slopes; directional felling downhill; retain 10–15 pines per hectare; lop-and-scatter on the contour; brushwood check dams in gullies; plant 2,500 seedlings per hectare in 30 x 30 x 30 cm pits with mulch, after the first pre-monsoon rain.
Every year: early burning of fire lines only in January, no broadcast burning; clear pine litter in 10 m strips near the taps.
Years 2–5: annual beating-up and two weedings; remove pine wildings.
Years 4–5: resume grazing only as supervised two-hour grazing plus cut-and-carry, and only if regeneration exceeds 2,000 seedlings per hectare.
Budget the NPR 900,000 roughly as: 350,000 nursery and planting, 250,000 protection wages, 200,000 check dams, 100,000 monitoring.
3. State the monitoring indicators and decision thresholds you would write into the amended plan, and say what you would do if the indicators fail by year three.
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Indicators and thresholds:
- Established regeneration of desired broadleaf: at least 2,500 seedlings per hectare and 1,500 saplings per hectare at years 3 and 5.
- Browse damage: below 20% of leaders.
- Retained pine canopy on protection strips: not below 0.2.
- Litter depth in treated coupes: below 3 cm.
- Erosion: no rill deeper than 20 cm, no new landslide larger than 50 m2.
- Spring discharge: monthly measurement at both springs, with the April–May dry-season minimum as the reference series.
- Fire: no more than one incident per year and less than 2 ha burned.
Year-3 decision rule: if regeneration is below 1,500 per hectare or browse damage exceeds 40%, suspend all further felling, double protection, extend stall feeding and return the issue to the general assembly. If erosion thresholds are breached, stop coupe work and install check dams before continuing. Report annually to the DFO, and require an independent review in year 5 before any expansion onto the upper slope.