Selection cutting is the
silvicultural practice of harvesting trees in a way that moves a forest stand towards an uneven-aged or all-aged condition, or 'structure'. Using stocking models derived from the study of old growth forests, '"Selection cutting"', also known as 'selection system', or 'selection silviculture', manages the establishment, continued growth and final harvest of multiple age classes (usually three) of trees within a stand. A closely related approach to forest management is
Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF), which makes use of selection systems to achieve a permanently irregular stand structure.