A quantitative measure of how fully the trees in a stand utilize the available land, light, and soil resources. It is usually expressed as a percentage or a relative index based on basal area and trees per acre. Understocked stands waste growing space and produce branchy timber, while overstocked stands suffer from stunted growth and high mortality due to intense competition.
Heard on the job
The stocking in unit four is way too high, so we're marking it for a pre-commercial thin to release the crop trees.
Also heard as
- stocking level