Developing Stand Density Management Regimes Density management practices Density management techniques such as espacement and thinning manipulate the growing space and resources available to each tree. These silviculture treatments control crown and root development, the size and quality of each tree and the productivity of the stand. Full site occupancy is achieved quickly if the establishment density is moderately high and the spatial distribution of trees is uniform. Uniformity increases in importance as establishment density decreases. Any clumping of the same number of stems will reduce the stand yield even further.
Holes often reflect microsite limitations or brush competition.
Low density stands produce less volume initially because there are too few trees to exploit the available growing space. The rate of stand growth improves after crown closure. Theoretically, the growth rate of a low density stand could eventually surpass that of a dense stand, as predicted by yield projection models. This phenomenon, called cross-over , has not been observed in research plots in BC, which are still too young to confirm or reject the theory.