The aim of beech management is to produce high value timber. Producing high value timber means producing valuable logs of good quality characterised by diameter over 60 cm under bark, knot free parts of the lower stem, thin and sound knots, knotty core of 20 cm at maximum, no discolorations (redheart). Logs should also be highly resistant to abiotic damages, tending and harvesting costs should be minimised. Especially with beech management it is important to consider such single crop trees which have these favourable conditions. These trees should be favoured during thinning operations in order to increase the size of the crown and reduce competition among neighbouring trees. In such a case single mixtures might be especially precarious, as mixed stand may lead to an overriding of trees with weaker growth ability and dominant species may not achieve the targeted log quality. Here the question arises if it is possible to produce high value timber in mixed forests?
