Transcription of video clip Agroforestry

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The objective of rapidly producing wood in deciduous tree plantations requires us to come select the most beautiful subjects at one point in time, and remove trees that are less well formed.
The choice is never easy, but the result allows the remaining trees to grow freely and have lots of foliage, which can make their trunks grow rapidly.
So, my work seeks to verify the frequency and the intensity of these cuttings in order to maximize the quality of these woods.

With two research assistants, we’re there, in a sugar maple forest, to determine the places where we will do our sampling.
The project aims to develop a method to quickly estimate the plant biomass of an entire site.

We just finished the preparation of wood samples taken from a tree plantation, which we will compare with wood from trees grown in a natural forest.
The hardness and density, if they are the same, would allow uses similar to those of trees from natural forests.

© Alain Cogliastro
Agroforestry combines traditional agriculture and the cultivation of trees

My research also looks at agroforestry, the integration of trees or shrubs to agricultural crops.

We see here site preparation, for a soybean plantation.

We expect positive environmental impacts and higher productivity sites.


Rather than completely cutting down this gray birch forest and replacing it with a plantation of white spruce, we chose to test strip openings in those forests, where we'll plant deciduous trees of great value.
We preserve the landscape, the diversity, and we give growth conditions for deciduous trees that are preferable to large open areas exposed to strong winds and high summer insulations.

In these environments, we’re testing different tree protection systems, which will enable them to grow in height without being grazed by deers.

© Alain Cogliastro
To the left, a black walnut (Juglans nigra). To the right, an hybrid walnut (Juglans nigra X Juglans regia).

We set up an experiment to compare the growth and, eventually, the wood quality of black walnut, a North American species of great value, and hybrid walnut trees, which are from France, which are a cross between a walnut, the tree that gives us the walnuts, and black walnut.

So the comparison will allow us to validate the advantages of using hybrids in plantations in order to produce quality wood for our private landowners.