SITE INDEX CURVES FOR CHIR PINE (PINUS ROXBURGHII)
Raja Walayat Hussain and lshtiaq Ahmad Qazi, Research Officers, Forest Mensuration Branch, Pakistan Forest Institute, Peshawar.
Intro:
Growth or yield is a function of age, stand density and site quality. Foresters working in the field require data on site quality as a measure of productivity to aid in planning and management. Site quality, being the net result of the complex interaction of environmental factors finds its expression in the volume increment of the stands supported by the area. An easier and quicker index for expressing the site quality is the raltive height growth as a function of age. This is closely related with the ultimate measure of site quality i. e. volume and is only slightly affected by the stand density (5,10). In over stocked and stagnated young stands height may not be the proper measure of the index but still it is generally accepted for the sake of convenience. It is also considered to be a reasonable numerical expression for the productive capacity of the site and remains almost unaffected by minor variations in the past treatments (3,9,12, 15).