Treesearch

Four central Pennsylvania barrens species, black oak (Quercus velutina), chestnut oak (Quercus prinus), red maple (Acer rubrum), and sassafras (Sassafras albidum), in the sapling size range were tagged and monitored in juxtaposed understory and full sunlight conditions.

Woody vegetation was surveyed in 28 forest stands at the Spotsylvania Battlefield, Virginia to examine forest composition and structure in relation to stand age and edaphic features.

The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between light conditions and the growth of natural seedlings of red oak (Quercus rubra L.), pin cherry (Prunus pensylvanica L.) and black cherry (P. serotina Ehrh.) growing under a range of canopy densities in northwestern Pennsylvania.

The area now known as Pioneer Mothers' Memorial Forest was acquired by Joseph Cox in 1816 from the public domain. In 1944, a portion of that property, including the area referred to as Cox Woods, was established as a National Forest Research Natural Area. This beech-maple forest, located in the Knobs area of southern Indiana, is considered to be one of the few remaining remnants of the original forests in the region.

Initiated in 1985, a study was designed to evaluate the effects of site preparation (rototilling) and logging slash on 5-year survival and growth of natural and direct-seeded northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.) after clearcutting a mature, 45-year-old red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) plantation in central Pennsylvania.

Assigning tree grades to eastern hardwoods is often a difficult task for neophyte graders. Recently several "dichotomous keys" have been developed for training graders in the USFS hardwood tree grading system. TREEGRAD uses the Tree Grading Algorithm (TGA) for determining grades from defect location data and is designed to be used as a teaching aid.

A lack of viable acorns, due to rodent depredation, may be the primary cause of advanced regeneration failure of oak in Pennsylvania. White oak (Quercus alba) acorns germinate immediately upon falling.

Understory composition was measured on 960 10.5 m2 plots in 16 stands on the West Virginia University Forest in north-central West Virginia. The overstory composition was dominated by oaks (Quercus spp.) on 50% of the stands and by a mixture of oaks and yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.) on 50%. All stands were without recent disturbance and ranged in age from 60 to 100 years. All woody stems under 7 cm dbh were counted by size class and percent cover was estimated for woody and herbaceous vegetation.

Recent canvasses by the USDA Forest Service of the sawmills and pulpmills in the central hardwood region show large increases in the harvests of hardwood species. In Kentucky, the production of hardwood sawlogs rose from 457 million board feet in 1974 to 775 million board feet in 1986, a 70 percent increase. In West Virginia, hardwood sawlog production also increased. In 1987, hardwood sawlog production in the Mountaineer State totaled 566 million board feet, an increased of 39 percent over the 399 million hard feet produced in 1979.

Height and survival values of northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.) were compared three years after outplanting as functions of: stock types (direct-seeded, 1-0, 2-0, 1-1, 2-1, and 2-year-old seedlings grown in 7.9-liter pots), presence or absence of undercutting in the nursery, and presence or absence of top-clipping when field planting. In all, 33 or more completely randomized single-tree plots for each of 17 different treatments or treatment combinations were represented at recently clear-cut sites in northern, central, and southern Pennsylvania. The same seed source was used in all...