Oak timber production in small-scale farm forests - an investigation concerning operational problems with forest stand transformations in the northern of the alpine foothills with special consideration of light ecology and specific site conditions

Smallscale farm forests are in Austria a widely encountered property type. Very often the forest soils are nutrient poor and heavily acidified from multiple causes and are stocked with unstable and susceptible conifer stands. Transformation of such stands towards more stable, diverse and valuable mixed broadleaf forests is very often a desired goal. Such a goal is, because of the small scale property and of poor, acidified soils very hard to be achieved. Therefore within this research it should be found out: which provenances of Quercus robur are best fitted for afforestation in nutrient poor and acidified sites and guarantee under limited light conditions the best success for transformation of these forest stands. Furtheron it should be also evaluated if row or cluster planting is better suited for the reforestation sucess.