Preventing Bark-Caused Increment Borer Jams: A Modified Technique For Core Extraction

Abstract

When coring thick-barked trees, increment cores often become compressed and jammed inside the narrow region of the borer shaft. These jams can be problematic for two reasons: first, it often leaves the core unusable; second, the jam may be so tightly compressed in the borer that removal is difficult, especially in the field. Although procedures to evacuate these jams are documented in the literature, methods of prevention are not. Here, a modified manual method of increment boring that can reduce the likelihood of jams and, in addition, decrease the number of deformed core samples is described. Traditional and modified boring methods were randomly assigned to 40 Douglas-fir trees (80 cores) at a research site along the Oregon coast. Results show that jams were associated with traditional boring over six times more than with the proposed modified technique.