It captures most of the current value at a relatively low cost. It usually shifts management expenses from the current landowner to future owners. If done carefully , it can leave behind a condition that is still aesthetically pleasing to most people, that provides habitat for certain kinds of wildlife, that protects water supplies and that affords recreational opportunities. It is often the only harvesting alternative that landowners will accept based on the information they have been given. It helps meet the current, worldwide need for forest products.
Costs Select cutting can minimize long-term forest benefits.
It tends to leave behind trees of considerable age, poor quality, lower diversity, slow growth and greatly diminished commercial potential. Disturbance of ground cover and damage to remaining trees is usually extensive. This is a relatively unproductive condition of limited benefit that can persist for many decades and is expensive to remedy. The decision to select cut is often based on misinformation or misunderstanding. Background Most forests in Virginia today originated following abandonment of fields and pastures during and after the Great Depression or following timber harvests, fires and severe storms.