Nonsense, I have seen it work.

whatever, been seeing this since the early 80's believe what you will
RR

POPPY COCK. I do not drag my wood as I don't need the dirt to dull my chain saw chain quicker. I cut it in place and load it in the wagon and trailer and drive away. When spring comes I have all kinds of stuff popping up. every year leaks come thru the leaf litter, elder berry bushes wild raspberry's, tiny oak trees maples and Ash trees and it was Ash I was cutting for fire wood. I even had cardinal (Lobelia) plant growing in the woods.

Al

not saying stuff won't grow when you remove the overhead canopy, I saying its a fact more stuff will grow sooner, better if you bear the ground. those oak leaves are highly acidic unless they are deep enough to have went through a heat cycle as they decompose.
RR

First off not all trees in my woods are oak. I have Cherry, Maple, Ash, Bass wood, Hickory, iron wood and others. Things that grow in my woods seem to not care about the acid. I even filled my raised veggie beds with dirt from the woods and have gotten tomatoes that grow 7 feet tall.

Al

think about this, once again I never said nothing would grow with the ground covered if you remove the overhead canopy, but any seed germinates when the ground hits a certain temperature, the ground cover acts as insulation to keep the springtime sun from warming the ground, stuff germinates sooner on bare ground, come up sooner and gets a jump start over growing in areas with the ground covered.
and enjoy your ash trees, they will be short lived when the EAB hits there.
RR

90% of my Ash trees died about 10 years ago. But they all just about dropped a whole bunch of seed so not I have half my wood with 3 to 5 foot tall ash saplings.

Al