Wood quality and quantity of fir and beech natural forests in relation to site fertility in west-central Greece

Of the numerous environmental factors affecting tree growth, the relationship between site quality and tree growth seems to be the most important. In the present work, the wood production of fir (Abies borisii-regis Mattf.) and beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) natural forests on quantitative and qualitative basis was investigated in relation to site quality (II, III, IV for fir and II, III for beech). In this investigation, 268 hybrid fir and 228 beech trees growing in different site qualities were selected at the University forest of Pertouli and at the Aspropotamos forest district, Trikala, western-central Greece. For the grading of 559 (fir) and 787 (beech) produced logs, EN 1927-1:2008 and EN 1316-1:1997 standards were employed, respectively. The results showed that the site quality has an influence on both quantitative and qualitative production of both fir and beech produced wood. It was recorded that fir and beech trees grown in the better site quality (II), have attained the highest mean ring increment and produced the highest quantities of wood. Particularly, higher production and better quality of fir wood were obtained in the better site quality II, while in site quality III and, much more in site quality IV, the quantity and quality of roundwood produced were less and inferior. Beech roundwood production was higher and of better quality in site quality II than in the inferior site quality III.