This chapter presents various forestry practices, from modest selective timberharvesting to plantation forestry. Particular attention is paid to differencesin the amount, quality and dynamics of dead wood between managed and naturalforests. The chapter also discusses management options and processes that mightimprove conditions for saproxylic species.

Many kinds of forestry practice exist, but it is beyond the scope of this chapterto give a full treatment of all aspects. Common to all types of forestry is thefact that trees are cut and removed from the forest. This clearly represents asituation of resource competition for the species dependent on dead wood. Inmany regions, clear-cutting and removing all the trees is the most commonharvesting method and has obvious negative effects on many saproxylic species(Figure 13.1). But other management regimes also show negative effects on thedead wood biota. Balancing the extraction of wood with the demands of saproxylicspecies is a difficult task – a topic that is discussed in the secondhalf of this chapter.

Amount, quality and dynamics of dead wood in managed forests

The most obvious ef ect of forestry is the extraction of trees for commercialpurposes. This will result in a loss of dead wood resources for saproxylicspecies, in terms of quantity, quality and dynamics.