The practice of replacing dead or failed seedlings in a young plantation to ensure the stand reaches its target stocking density. Foresters usually conduct a survival survey after the first or second growing season and order a beat up operation if mortality exceeds acceptable limits. The term applies to both the action of replanting and the replacement tree itself.
Heard on the job
We need a crew to beat up unit four next week, the drought took out about twenty percent of the Douglas fir we planted last spring.
Insider tip
Survival rates below 80 percent typically trigger a beat up operation to avoid large gaps in the future canopy.
Also heard as
- blanking
- infilling