Fandoghlu forest with an area of 4378 ha is located at the end of Western Elburz mountain Chains-northeast of Ardebil, Iran. It has extra importance due to it's high species diversity as well as it's standings the most valuable natural forest in Ardebil region. As for maintenance, restoration and development of forests, accurate sylvicultural studies in forest stands succession is essential, this study was carried out while 5 broad leaved mixed stands (totally 404 ha) were investigated.In order to study succession, besides stands, structural characteristics (such as composition, layering and regeneration), historical materials including, analysis of Fandoglu natural resources comprehensive plan of 1984, conversations with old local people in the region as well as observation of similar sites in astara region came into consideration.according to this investigation Fagus orientalis has a meaningfull role in the forest stands as well as in their natural regeneration, not admitting the belonging of the site to corylus stands. This survey shows that due to increasing abundance of main species such as Fagus, Carpinus, Quercus, Sorbus and Acer a long with decreasing abundance of pioneer species such as Corylus, Crataegus and Mespilus the existing stands are passing the preliminary levels of succession. At the end, according to this study, it can be concluded that these stands are progressing towards a climax of uneven-aged mixed stands of are passing the preliminary or Quercus castaneifolia.

Hazelnut is one of the most important and economical nut fruits. Evaluation of genetic diversity is necessary for selection of superior genotypes and using them in breeding programs. In this study, genotype diversity of 28 selected from the Fandoglu region of Ahar were evaluated by using 34 qualitative and 22 quantitative traits, . Results showed that some traits had high coefficient of variation, such as total chlorophyll, catkin length, husk weight, shell weight and 100 fruit weight. There was a significant difference between correlation coefficient of some measured traits like leaf, fruit size and weight and kernel weight. Cluster analysis and dendrogram with genetic distance of 4-25, divided all genotypes in two main groups. The factor analysis reduced the assessed traits into six main factors and justifying 85. 65 percent of total variation. Fruits of the genotypes divided to three forms, round, spindle and flattened, that most of the them had round fruits. Fruit ripenning ranged from first of August to the first of September and there was a significat difference among genotypes. All of the genotypes were protanderous. Male flower opening and beganing of pollination occurred from first to late of february and stigma were shown from late of february to Middle of March. Resultes showed that there was a considerable variation in all traits, but fruit weight and size had a great important role in identification of genotypes. This studies showed that morphlogical traites can be a powerful tool for identification and evaluation of hazelnut genotypes.

Geographic Information System (GIS) is one of the most important tools to prepare forest management plan and, in general, as a tool for management, sustainable logging and future planning based on the derived statistical data from forested regions. The purpose of this study was spatial simulation of trees in forest to have in hand an example of an uneven aged forest (simulated forest). By means of the simulated forest, it is possible to test different statistical methods and various management activities before they are carried out in real world. The study area, Gorazbon, is a district of Kheyrud research-educational forest, with 1001 hectares area located in East of Nowshahr city. The inventory was implemented using systematic random sampling.Afterwards, trees were randomly distributed within the compartments of this district, using the results of full callipering inventory with Arc GIS 9.3 software and forest was simulated. In this stage, the inventory process was implemented in simulated forest similar to the inventory of real forest. These results were compared with the results of the ground inventory, and nostatistically significant difference was found in any of repetitions. Consequently, it can infer that the simulated forest is remarkably applied to the forest inventory implementations. Furthermore, it is a functional tool to provide forest management plans of Kheyrud forest.To say in other words, this makes possible to test different methods of forest inventory and also type and dimensions of plot and inventory net unquestionably.

Land use changes can significantly affect the hydrology of a forest watershed. Ground cover is important to protect the soil against erosion. Timber harvesting has been changed the canopy cover and forest soil was exposed to the wind and water. Soil compaction and removing the forest floor in the skid trails was reduced the capacity of water absorption in mineral soils and thus reduced water infiltration, increased runoff, which caused to soil erosion. In order to measure the rate of sediments in two slopes and to study the effect of skid trails on the amount of sediments, the plot-level study was carried out in the Gorazbon district in Kheyrud forest in the control area and skid trail after skidding operations in the sample plot. The results showed that the most sediment value was 1. 938 g. liter-1 in the skid trail with a 20-40 percent slope in the autumn and the lowest deposition was 0. 103 g. liter-1 in the control area with a slope of 20-40 percent in the autumn. Type of Coverage (skid trail and control area), the season and the interactions between the cover and the season statistically have significant effect on the sediment yield, but the slope and the interactions between the slope and cover, as well as the interactions between the slope and season have no statistically significant effect on the sediment yield. Duncan’ s test showed that there was a yield statistically significant difference between sediment yeild in different seasons and the autumn had the highest sediment

Log extraction with draught animals continues to be a suitable choice in many areas, even in industrialized countries. As compared with ground-skidding equipment, the use of animals has been shown to reduce soil disturbance, soil compaction and damage to residual trees significantly. This research was carried out in compartment No. 220 & 225 of Namkhaneh district, in Kheyrud Forest. In order to evaluate damage to stand and regeneration following mule hauling, before and after operations, hundred percentage inventory of regeneration in mule trails were conducted. Compacted soil sampling in mule trails was measured. Results of this study showed that following traditional wood hauling by mule, twenty two percent of regeneration in mule trails was damaged and no damage was observed to trees by this wood hauling method. As a whole, 4.3% of total area were disturbed and compacted by applying tradition hauling. The ANOVA effect f mule passes an slope, and soil bulk density showed that mule passes and slopes, as well as, their interaction effect had no significant effect on soil bulk density (P<0.05). Also paired sample t-test showed that traditional hauling has no significant effect on soil bulk density in trails befor and after mule hauling statistically.

Mapping forest types is essential for sustainable management, however, field methods are time-consuming and costly. Therefore, Modern remote sensing, especially hyperspectral imagery like PRISMA with 243 spectral bands, is valuable for mapping Hyrcanian mixed forests. However, its accuracy and capabilities must be assessed. In this study, the capability of PRISMA data was assessed using SVM, SAM, and RF classification approaches to create forest type maps for the Gorazbon district of Kheyrud Forest. A ground truth map consisting of 131 field sample plots, each measuring 45 × 45 m, was generated using Kuchler's abundance method based on the 100 trees with the largest diameters. Five forest types were identified: pure beech, mixed-beech, beech-hornbeam, hornbeam-beech, and mixed hornbeam. Geometric correction, smoothing and noise filtering was applied, then, Illumination correction was performed. Anomalies were detected using the RX algorithm. The minimum noise fraction (MNF) transformation and pixel purity index (PPI) were applied to the remaining 103 spectral bands and then used in the classification process. Additionally, indices such as NDVI, ReNDVI, MTCI, NDIred, and RTVI were incorporated into the classification process. The results showed that the SVM and RF algorithms achieved overall accuracies of 53.09% and 43.19%, with kappa coefficients of 0.38 and 0.25, respectively. The best combination of input data was derived from the spectral bands obtained through the MNF transformation. Based on the findings, high noise in PRISMA imagery and the similar spectral behavior of forest types in this region hindered the species discrimination and classification performance.