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In drained forest sites, ditch cleaning (DC) may be needed to restore the drainage function of ditches and maintain favourable growing conditions. The main aims of this study were (i) to estimate the growth responses of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst) stands following DC, and (ii) to test the hypothesis that stand stocking should be less than 150 m3 ha−1 at DC to obtain a growth response. This survey included 14 ditched stands in Sweden on both mineral and peat soils. The methodology was based on evaluating growth rates before and after the DC operation (growth ratio), reconstructing the growth by taking increment cores from the tree trunks. The measured growth was related to growth derived using a growth simulator as if DC had not been conducted. The results showed an average growth increase of 1.6 m3 ha−1 yr−1 for about 25 years after DC in the stands containing 50–200 m3 ha−1. The growth response appeared to be positively related to stand age, trees ha−1 and site index, and negatively related to stand volume, supporting the hypothesis that stand stocking is an important factor to consider when assessing the need for DC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In boreal-drained peatland forests, tree growth is retarded by the gradual deterioration of drainage ditch networks. In order to avoid the development of suboptimal growth conditions, ditch network maintenance (DNM) operations (ditch cleaning and/or complementary ditching) are annually conducted on an area of about 70,000 ha in Finland. The previous studies indicate that the depth of the water table prior to DNM may influence the magnitude of the growth response to DNM. Tree growth does not necessarily increase after DNM at sites with large stand volume and subsequent low water levels due to tree stand evapotranspiration. We investigated how the pre-treatment water table depth (pre-WTD) in late summer relates to the growth of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands after the DNM operation in 12 field experiments. The increase in mean annual volume growth caused by DNM was negatively related to the pre-WTD, with the highest growth response in stands where the pre-WTD was less than 25–30 cm. DNM did not clearly increase stand growth in sites where the pre-WTD was more than 35–40 cm below the soil surface. There was a high variation in growth response to DNM between the water levels from 20 to 35 cm below the soil surface, indicating that factors other than water table depth are also needed as decision criteria for assessing the appropriate timing of ditch network maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]