Which thinning focuses on removing trees with the dominant crowns?

• A. Mechanical/row thinning
• B. Crown thinning
• C. Selection thinning
• D. Low thinning

Answer: (C)

In selection thinning, the stand is opened up by removing individual trees based on their merit—how well formed they are, their vigor, and their crown class—so the best competing trees can grow more freely. Since trees with dominant crowns are typically strong competitors, this approach often involves removing those dominant-crown trees when they are not the best performers or when they crowd better crop trees. The goal is to leave the most promising trees to dominate the future stand, producing irregular spacing and higher growth on the survivors. This differs from uniform patterns like row thinning or from methods that specifically target crown structure or lower-growing suppression, which explains why the focus described aligns with selection thinning.