[Synthetic evaluation on stand quality of protection forests in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region in western Hubei Province].

Stand qualities of 19 kinds of protection forests in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region in Western Hubei Province were evaluated synthetically by using 12 indexes, and could be classified into four different grades. The relationships between stand quality and some major factors such as crown density, elevation, and origin were also discussed in this paper. The results showed that elevation was a very important factor that influenced the stand quality, and the stand quality of natural forest was higher than other forests.