Harvesting with 33-m trail spacing was proposed by FERIC as a way to meet the quality criteria for single-tree selection in hardwood forests in Quebec's public forests. The approach is, however, applicable to any partial-cutting treatment in hardwood forests, and the method was studied in 16 operations in 2003-2004. The approach represents an acceptable compromise between protection of the residual stand and operating costs, as the productivity of the feller-bunchers using this method decreased only slightly as a result of increased travel. The operations that FERIC studied did not all meet the target quality criteria, but provided an adequate level of protection of residual stems. The method requires a certain degree of control to limit the felling of non-marked stems, and the use of evaluation criteria specially adapted to this method would facilitate its implementation.