Originally Posted by
Cornelius08
WV University Division of Forestry:
"IMPACT OF CLEARCUT SIZE ON WHITE-TAILED DEER USE AND TREE REGENERATION
JAMES W. AKINS and EDWIN D. MICHAEL, Division of Forestry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506.
ABSTRACT:
Northeastern forests have experienced regeneration delays and/or failures due to browsing by white-tailed deer
(
Odocoileus virginianus). Investigations were made in north-central West Virginia to determine if the size of clearcut is correlated
with degree of deer browsing, regeneration of shrubs and trees, and percent ground cover by various herbaceous plants. Tree
seedlings, woody shrubs, and herbaceous ground cover were recorded in September 1992 and August 1993 on 16, 1-year-old
clearcuts, ranging in size from 0.8 to 0.2 ha. Woody regeneration was categorized by species, origin, browsed or not, and vegetative
height class on 25 systematically arranged sampling stations within each clearcut. Herbaceous plant cover (ferns, grasses, and
sedges) was ocularly estimated as percent horizontal ground cover. All tree and shrub combined and commercial tree species for
timber were species significantly taller in the 0.8-ha clearcuts than in the smaller cuts. Percent browsed was generally lower for all
tree species groups and
Rubus spp. in the 0.8-ha clearcuts than in the smaller clearcuts. Tree seedling diversity was relatively
unaffected and percent fern cover was greatest in the 0.2-ha clearcuts."
" If timber and wildlife are the primary objectives of small forest landowners, clearcuts smaller than
0.8-ha in size should be avoided."
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That clearly shows how cut size is important.Thats with 13.8 dpsm. Naturally with more deer, you'd need larger cuts. Bust 10 bags of dog food on the ground and your dog wont make a dent. Throw only a handful and it wont last long. So it is with regeneration & deer. Thats but only one reason why timbering practices are to blame and not the deer themselves.
Y-a-a-a-w-n. The defense rests. lol
No one has denied that bigger cuts do better.Overwhleming the deer with a big cut is sure way to get decent regeneration.Unfortunately they can only cut so much on game lands before they'll eventually have too much pole timber.On top of that,they have to have enough diversity in age class to benefit the species that need mature forests.DCNR has different issues to deal with.They're mandated to only cut 70 acres at a time and they can only have so many timber sales within a certain distance of each other.There are several huge clearcuts within a mile or two of my house on land owned by a timber company.They cut a few of these areas when deer numbers were fairly low.The regeneration is excellent and there's more food than the deer can ever eat.I hunt the area when I have tags for that spot and do well on a consistant basis.The problem is that these clearcuts are so large and thick,it's almost impossible to get the deer out and as a result,everyone still complains that there's no deer.Timbering on a large scale does wonders but it's not always practical and it's not a longterm solution in every case unless there's enough timber to keep rotating.