Ben Jackson
Timber Harvesting Specialist
The University of Georgia
College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
Cooperative Extension Service
Revised April 1999
Thinning is a process in which a certain number of trees are removed from a stand to increase the growing space available to the residual stand of timber (the trees that are left to grow) and to make some money from the timber that is removed. Pine trees respond well to thinning, particularly in plantation stands where the trees are planted close together.
Depending on your objectives, thinning can be a good pine management practice because of the benefits to the stand. By increasing the growing space available to the remaining trees, a landowner can increase the growth rate of those trees and, more importantly, the rate at which they increase in value. Thinning can also be used to remove poorly formed trees that would have little future value. A last incentive for thinning is the value of the harvested trees. Although thinning rarely removes large volumes of timber, financial returns can be expected in most cases.
This publication emphasizes thinning practices in pine plantations, although much of the information can be applied when thinning natural stands of pine.