Treesearch

Selection systems have a long history of application across a range of forest types as a means for sustained yield and preserving diverse forest structure (O'Hara 2002). In the northeastern United States, group selection is a commonly used method for management of northern hardwood forests (Leak et al. 2014). This approach is well regarded for maintaining uneven-aged stand attributes as well as retaining a range of shade tolerant and intolerant species. However, forest characteristics following management with group selection are primarily assessed at the stand level. This approach leaves...

Yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britt.) is the second most harvested hardwood species in Quebec. Hardwood stands harboring this species are likely to yield high value products, and their proximity to inhabited regions facilitates a more intensive silviculture. Yet, little is known about the effects of silvicultural treatments such as commercial thinning on stands composed mostly of yellow birch. We set up an experiment in a 41-year-old yellow birch stand that arose after a clearcutting in 1971. The experimental design comprises four treatments: a control (no intervention); and light,...

Tree growth modeling is important for forest managers, but is difficult in structurally and compositionally diverse forests where growth depends on complex ecological relationships. Many of those relationships are not well studied, and traditional parametric models struggle to adequately account for them. We describe a nonparametric machine learning approach to modeling, which uses data to determine the methodology, accommodates high dimensional data, and could be well suited to capturing complicated, poorly understood interactions between predictors. We compare this approach to the...

Northern hardwood forests are structurally and compositionally diverse resulting in multiple "types" of northern hardwood forest communities. Within the northern Great Lakes Region of the United States (Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), Minnesota represents a transition zone for multiple tree species with some tree species reaching their western, northern, or southern edge of their range including sugar maple (Acer saccharum). To explore the potential influence of range limits on the structure and composition of northern hardwood forest communities, I utilized the Forest Inventory and...

The Roundtable Questions and Answers (Q and A) followed four science-centered talks on (1) the rationale, design, and implementation of a project evaluating alternatives to selection silviculture management of northern hardwood forests, (2) preharvest vegetation structure, (3) post-harvest vegetation structure and deer browsing, and (4) pre- and post-harvest deer use. Our rationale for the followup Q and A was to highlight the critical importance of the management-research partnership in the establishment and execution of the experiment and in the development of information from the...

Conflicts between herbivores and forest management vary depending on region and forest type. In northern hardwood forests of the north-central United States, high herbivore abundances, specifically white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), often cause problems by limiting tree stocking and regeneration of diverse tree species. Beginning in 2017, a collaboration between the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Michigan State University, and forest industry partners began testing alternative silviculture in northern hardwood forest types across the state. Foresters and wildlife...

Many managed northern hardwood forests in northern Michigan contain low densities of desirable tree regeneration, while often simultaneously containing relatively high densities of undesirable tree species (e.g., Fagus grandifolia Ehrh., Ostrya virginiana Mill. K. Koch). Limited light availability that favors shade-tolerant species and a lack of viable germination substrate for many desirable tree species following harvest—as well as selective deer-browsing effects—likely contribute to this pattern. As a result, managers and researchers alike have been interested in testing alternative...

Complex interactions between heavy deer browse and plant response have resulted in structural and compositional changes in forest ecosystems. Sedge dominance and poor tree recruitment have been documented in northern hardwood stands across Wisconsin and Michigan. This study explores interactions of Pennsylvania sedge dominance and deer-browse impacts in northern hardwood forests with adaptive management strategies designed to enhance tree regeneration. We evaluated the immediate effects of several common silviculture site preparation techniques implemented in a recently harvested northern...

In Quebec, Canada, multicohort forest management in hardwood and mixedwood stands include group selection cutting and patch cutting. We assessed the success of these cuts in regenerating the intermediate shade tolerant yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britt.; YB) at an operational scale and over a large territory using surveys conducted at 2, 5, 10, and 15 years after harvest. Regeneration of the target species was successful, with YB showing a mean stocking around 60 percent and a mean sapling density around 3,400 stems ha-1 after 15 years. The relative presence of YB in 15-year-old...

In response to concerns about yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britton; YB) regeneration in Quebec, new treatments have been tested in the 1990s, including patch cuts and small clearcuts. The objective of this project was to draw an overall portrait, at the scale of the province, on YB regeneration success 10 to 20 years after treatment. We resampled 36 experiments and 466 logging areas. The logging areas sampled were mostly dominated at the sapling stage by sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.; SM) (23 percent) and YB (18 percent). The proportion of sites where YB was the dominant...