VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Picea rubens | Red Spruce 



WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
Red spruce is one of the more important timber species in the
northeastern United States.  The wood is light in weight, straight
grained, and resilient.  It is used for paper, construction lumber, and
is highly preferred for musical instruments [9,29].


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
Spruce grouse browse the leaves and twigs of red spruce [62].  Mice and
voles consume and store significant amounts of spruce seeds, preferring
red and white spruce to balsam fir [2].  Birds (particularly crossbills
or grosbeaks) will clip the terminal buds of young spruce, as will
porcupines, bears, snowshoe hares, and, rarely, deer [7,55,78].  Red
squirrels clip twigs and terminal buds and also eat reproductive and
vegetative buds [7,72].

In the southern part of its range, red spruce forests are used by only a
few wildlife species.  Many of these species are usually only found
farther north, such as snowshoe hare, wood warblers and other songbirds,
rodents, and salamanders [79].


PALATABILITY : 
Red spruce is unpalatable to white-tailed deer [78].


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


COVER VALUE : 
Red spruce provides thermal and loafing cover for spruce grouse in
winter [62].


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
Red spruce is occasionally used for revegetation of coal mine sites in
West Virginia, primarily at high elevations, but it is of limited value
for this purpose [82].


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
Red spruce gum was formerly collected and processed for chewing gum [29].


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Silviculture:  Various silvicultural systems may be used to manage red
spruce.  Single tree selection, group selection, shelterwood, and strip
clearcut are all practical harvesting methods.  Red spruce is subject to
windthrow; partial cuttings are recommended not to exceed half of the
basal area, and a lighter harvest is usually better.  Seed tree cuts are
not recommended [6,9].  Frank and Blum [23] recommend a selection
silviculture where net growth is maximized by a 10-year, intensive
selection system.  Clearcuts are contraindicated for many soil types and
fertility levels [35].

Postharvest red spruce regeneration is entirely dependent on advance
reproduction.  If seedlings are not present at the time of logging, any
new spruce seedlings will be quickly overtopped and suppressed by faster
growing hardwoods [17].  The presence of leaf litter may beenefit for
regeneration.  Harvesting during the dormant season or allowing
harvested trees to dry on site has been recommended to increase litter
[35].  Loucks [53] noted that in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, red
spruce regeneration is usually good following partial cuts but may be
lacking in clearcuts.

The extent of red spruce forests has decreased following extensive
logging practices and subsequent fire [3].  In the mountains of central
West Virginia, it is estimated that approximately 500,000 acres (200,000
ha) of red spruce present in the late 19th century had been reduced to
less than 60,000 acres (24,000 ha) by 1975, and as little as 17,500
acres (7,000 ha) in 1978 [10,73].

Management for wildlife:  Harvest practices have an effect on the
resulting stand structure, and therefore on the numbers and species of
birds that use red spruce habitats.  Crawford and Titterington [15]
identified five seral stages and the corresponding bird species, and
made associated recommendations for management of spruce-fir stands.
They also determined that spruce budworm infestation increases both the
number and diversity of birds.  Dense, young stands of red spruce
support a higher population of birds but with less diversity than in
older forests.

Insects and disease:  Red spruce is relatively free from insects and
diseases until it is mature.  Mature trees are susceptible to the
following insects:  spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana), eastern
spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis), European spruce sawfly (Diprion
hercyniae), yellowheaded spruce sawfly (Pikonema alaskensis), and
eastern spruce gall adelgid (Adelges abietis) [9,22,23,30].  Diseases of
red spruce have been detailed [9,22,23,30,47].

Red spruce decline:  Throughout its range, growth rates of red spruce
have declined and mortality has increased [36].  This decline is
apparently more severe at higher elevations, in older stands, and on
more exposed sites.  This decline is not limited to red spruce; balsam
fir and associated white and black spruce appear to be affected also
[85].  A number of studies on the causes of red spruce decline have
failed to make a definitive case for any single cause.  There may be no
single cause or the complexity of the situation may not lend itself to a
clear cause-effect relationship [36,42,47].  The combination of climatic
stress and atmospheric pollution is probably the major cause of this
decline, according to a number of researchers [19,36,41,42].  Numerous
other causes have been proposed as well, including a natural cycle of
dieback and recovery [3, 36,].  A survey of the extent and identifiable
causes of mortality and decline was published in 1985 [85].

Related categories for Species: Picea rubens | Red Spruce