Tag: Oak regeneration

Planting oaks: a recipe for success

by Virginia McDaniel, Science Writer  • 
Growing oak trees to maturity begins with two ingredients: viable acorns and competitive seedlings. USDA Forest Service scientist Stacy Clark wrote a cookbook to help managers with the regeneration process in healthy, productive oak forests. To regenerate an oak forest, healthy, large oak seedlings and saplings must be present in the understory before overstory trees…  More 

Northern red oak: a contender or a member?

by Virginia McDaniel, Forestry Technician  • 
Northern red oak in the Appalachians Grows to be stately at high elevations But is there regen? And what makes it thrive? Harvest makes light to keep it alive But fire suppression helps mesophytes reign A little control may help red oak sustain Site treatment with fire and some herbicide May help each species to…  More 

Group Selection Harvest for White Oak Regeneration

by Kim Crider, SRS Science Communications  • 
Oaks are keystone species in forests across the eastern U.S. However, oak reproduction has been declining since at least the 1970s — old oaks still dominate the overstory, but a younger generation is not coming in behind. White oak, in particular, is valuable to wildlife and wood-dependent industries such as barrel, furniture, and cabinet making.…  More 

After Fire, Red Oak Seedlings Resprout

by Ivan Garcia, SRS Science Communications Intern  • 
Disturbance – from fire and subsistence living to widespread exploitative logging – enabled the growth of oak (Quercus) forests across the eastern U.S. These disturbances are not common today. Reduced disturbance, coupled with a long-term increase in moisture availability has been good for non-oak trees, which establish and grow under the older oak canopy –…  More 

White Oak Regeneration in Canopy Gaps

by Jennifer Moore Myers, SRS Science Communications, and Stacy Clark, SRS Research Forester  • 
In February 2020, USDA Forest Service scientist Stacy Clark planted 720 white oak (Quercus alba) seedlings on the Pisgah National Forest in western North Carolina. “White oak is declining in abundance across the eastern U.S., and we are concerned that wildlife species and industries around cooperages, distilleries, and flooring will be negatively affected without proactive…  More 

Oak Regeneration and Acorn Size

by Megan Bequette, SRS Science Communications Intern  • 
Oak regeneration is an oft-discussed topic in forestry. The trees aren’t sustainably generating in many upland temperate forests due to a variety of factors — including the fact that they are less competitive than other, more sun-loving species such as tulip poplar. One way that forest managers are responding to this issue is artificial oak…  More 

Using Prescribed Fire to Restore and Sustain Oak Ecosystems

by Jennifer Moore Myers, SRS Science Communications  • 
Used incorrectly, fire can degrade wood quality and its value as timber. When should managers use prescribed fire in hardwood stands? “I field a lot of questions from state and local partners about the long-term effects of using prescribed fire in hardwood stands,” says USDA Forest Service scientist Callie Schweitzer. Schweitzer has spent her career…  More 

Post-Fire Mortality for Southern Hardwoods

by Jennifer Moore Myers, SRS Science Communications  • 
Drive down Highway 7 in northern Arkansas, winding through the Ozark National Forest, and you may glimpse evidence of recent fire: scorched grass, darkened tree bark, maybe even a lingering wisp of smoke. Traces of prescribed burning can be seen throughout the South. Prescribed fire is a critical tool for forest restoration. A new study…  More 

The Cold Hill Silvicultural Assessment

by Teresa Jackson, SRS Public Affairs  • 
Upland hardwood forests mature slowly – it can take as long as a century. It can also take years to answer research questions about these forests, which are often dominated by oaks and hickories. In 2003, the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS), Northern Research Station, and Southern Region (Region 8) of the National…  More 

Introducing Femelschlag

by Debbie Crane, The Nature Conservancy  • 
Visitors to the Cradle of Forestry (located near Brevard in Pisgah National Forest) learn about the Biltmore Forest School – the first school of forestry in North America. It was started in 1898 by Carl Schenck. A native of Germany, Schenck brought German forestry concepts to the United States. It is fitting that today in…  More