BTB, if a 10 acre clearcut is seeded in red oak, but browsing prevents the regeneration, tell us...What will take hold in that open clearcut?




Regeneration sometimes fails after harvest cut-ting on the Allegheny Plateau of Pennsylvania as aresult of excessive deer browsing, (Marquis 1975a,Jordan 1967, Shafer and others 1961, Grisez 1957,Bennett 1957, Frontz 1930). Most such failurescan be avoided by limiting cutting to stands thatcontain abundant advance seedlings, or by usingshelterwood techniques (Marquis and others1975). But regardless of the care used in prescrib-ing cuts, there continue to be a few regenerationfailures.
Once regeneration fails, ecological changes oc-cur that make it increasingly difficult to establishtree seedlings. Any viable seed buried in the forestfloor generally germinates during the first 3 or 4years after cutting (Marquis 1975b). Thereafter,seed sources become limiting to further seedlingestablishment. Herbaceous vegetation often be-comes established and some kinds of herbs can in-terfere with the growth and development of anyseedlings present (Horsley 1977a, 1977b).