Treefall gaps, whether natural or man-made, are an essential component of stand and landscape heterogeneity. They are a logical level of organization within which to study many of the important ecological processes that underlie stand level response after partial cutting, especially patch applications where distinct canopy openings are created. The distribution
of gap sizes, their dispersion and dynamics can explain much of the silvicultural and mensurational behaviour of a stand. Studies that examine the response of forest flora, fauna and processes within gaps (of varying size and configuration) and withi the adjacent forest matrix can form the basis for developing predictive silvicultural systems for ecosystem management. Examination of ecosystem responses over an array of gap sizes, gap positions, and levels of retained forest matrix set in forest stands of different ages can address all possible degrees of canopy influence over the course of stand
development. Using canopy gaps as a framework thus provides a mechanism for the experimental study of forest stand response to a full range of silvicultural systems, as defined primarily by the degree of canopy retention associated with the first harvesting entry. This framework is presented in the hope of stimulating the widespread establishment of such experiments, and the generation of testable hypotheses that will improve our ability to generalize how forest stands respond to silvicultural manipulations.