Precommercial thinning of pedunculate oak: Recreational preferences of the population of Denmark for different thinning practices in young stands

The objective of this study was to investigate how thinning practice influences the preferences of adult Danes for forest recreation in young stands of even-aged oak. The study was based on five pairs of colour photographs from each of five recently thinned plots in a 13-year old experiment. The plots included 7000 stems ha−1 (unthinned), 5300 ha−1 (traditional thinning), 1000 ha−1, 300 ha−1 and 100 ha−1. All cut trees were left on the ground. The study was carried out as a national survey based on postal questionnaires (n=243, response 73%). Interviewees ranked the photographs according to the criterion: “Which forest environment do you prefer as a visitor?” Visitor accessibility was interpreted as being more important than stand density per se. Thinning slash was pointed out as a major factor for the impression of accessibility. Low to mid-range densities (300–5300 ha−1) were preferred over very dense (7000 ha−1) or very open (100 ha−1) stands.