Single rotation vs coppice systems for short-rotation intensive culture plantations—optimality conditions for volume production

Short rotation intensive culture plantations can be managed under a single rotation or coppice system. This paper shows the optimality conditions that must exist in order to maximize volume production of short rotation coppice stands. The results indicate the importance of equating the current annual increment of the stand to its mean annual increment whether managing with a single rotation or a series of coppice rotations over a cycle of time. The mathematical conditions for having the coppice system rather than the single rotation for volume production are also derived. These conditions indicate the average of the mean annual increments for the coppice harvests must be greater than the maximum mean annual increment of the single rotation. Finally, an example illustrates an application of the optimality conditions to a set of hypothetical data.