Adequacy of natural hardwood regeneration on forestlands in northeastern Pennsylvania Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The density of established and newly germinated commercial tree regeneration was assessed on 33 stands in northeastern Pennsylvania representing both northern hardwood and oak-hickory forest types. The purpose of the study was to determine the amount of regeneration on stands with differing amounts of residual basal area after harvest. Most stands were on nonindustrial private lands that had been harvested between 2-8 yr ago. The density of new germinants decreased while the density of seedling and sapling regeneration greater than 3 ft tall increased with increasing basal area removal. This result suggests that recruitment of taller seedlings and saplings improves with increasing intensity of harvests. Evidence of browsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmermann) was observed on nearly all species and was 50% or higher for seven species. High fern cover was most evident in heavily browsed areas. Neither slash cover nor height of slash was related to the density of any of the regeneration classes. This suggests that slash may not always afford adequate protection from deer. As in other parts of the state, a relative scarcity of sapling regeneration and high browsing incidence on many commercially valuable species indicates that problems with deer and competing species, like fern, need to be addressed in order to achieve sustainable forest management in northeastern Pennsylvania.

published proceedings

  • Northern Journal of Applied Forestry

author list (cited authors)

  • Fredericksen, T. S., Ross, B., Hoffman, W., Lester, M., Beyea, J., Morrison, M. L., & Johnson, B. N.

complete list of authors

  • Fredericksen, TS||Ross, B||Hoffman, W||Lester, M||Beyea, J||Morrison, ML||Johnson, BN

publication date

  • December 1998