Feature - Nature Notes: Regeneration Is The Next Woods!

Winter is a great season to be afield. We'll all admit, sometimes it is difficult to give up the comfort inside for the chilly winds of winter. When you do, however, there are often some real benefits gleaned during a winter woods walk. You can learn much about a wood's condition and future by observing it when the foliage is missing. An important observation focus this time of the year is the next woods.

 

Looking to the future of the next woods may take a bit of effort. But when the non-woody plants are browned by the cold, it is often easier to look for the next crop of trees. When the leaves have fallen from the woody shrubs and understory trees, it is, again, sometimes easier to look for the next forest without vegetative interference.

 

Why should you care about the next crop of trees growing in your woods? Most of the things Pennsylvanians value about woods depend on the aesthetics, recreation, habitat, and income related to healthy, productive trees and woods. As our current forest matures and we harvest from it, it is critical we learn how to find the next forest.
 

Inventory data generated by the USDA Forest Service for all forests in the commonwealth find the next forest is not doing well. On two of three acres where harvesting, natural tree mortality, or other disturbances should have created excellent conditions for establishing the next woods, the desired regeneration is missing. Even when they relax the standards, we only have sufficient commercial trees on one of two acres to ensure a level of forest cover in the future.

 

The challenges are many. We can relate the failure to many issues: loss of seed sources, competing understory plants such as ferns or mountain laurel, too many poor quality trees and wrong species left after harvesting, and excessive deer populations. The latter issue is very controversial, but if there are only a few seedlings or stump sprouts of desirable browse in the woods, even a few deer can have a major effect.

To learn more about your wood's future as you walk through the winter landscape, look for young trees on the forest floor. Are they poking up through flattened ferns? Are they extending above the snow? Is there a general layer of shrubs that deer apparently don’t eat? Are deer stopping to browse on the seedlings you do see? Do you see evidence of deer, turkey, and squirrel digging and scraping for seeds in the forest litter? There are many questions to consider in understanding the potential of your woods to provide future benefits.

 

Research studies repeatedly find that if you fail to have regeneration in place before harvesting, you will struggle to get regeneration in the future. Other competing plants will have the advantage over young trees trying to establish themselves. Seedlings already on the site, that are tall and strong, can compete successfully with other plants.

 

If repeated browsing has created misshapen seedlings with multiple tops, their ability to develop into quality stems may be frustrated. The evidence of wildlife looking for seeds clearly suggests your overstory trees are fruiting, but if none of the seed ever sprouts, there could be too much competition for mast, or light conditions either in the canopy or close to the ground may not be ideal.

 

You may not yet have the skills to identify the seedlings you see on your winter walk. With time and a decent book or some time afield with a resource professional, you can learn to identify most important tree species from their winter twigs—look at the buds, leaf scars, and branching patterns—the species are unique.

 

Working in a forest to create adequate regeneration of preferred tree species is not easy. To be successful, you have to consider many things such as light, competition, and the impact of deer. Getting it all correct takes planning and luck. You can create the right conditions, but if, unluckily, overstory does not produce seed, you may not obtain desired outcomes for several years. For example, this year there has been much discussion about the lack of acorns across Pennsylvania.

 

Many people just assume if they harvest or trees die naturally in their woods new ones will come along. It isn't that easy. Getting a healthy productive forest is not something that just happens; it takes planning, care, and time.

 

Growing the next forest is not an event, it is a process.

 

By looking now and every time you walk in your woods, you are taking an important step toward ensuring you pass forward the next forest. If you don’t see the next forest, ask why. Talk to your forester or wildlife professional. Start asking questions which will lead to a legacy of healthy trees in your woods.

 

For further information about issues impacting forest regeneration, call the Pennsylvania Forest Stewardship Program to request your free copy of Regenerating Hardwood Forests: Managing Competing Plants, Deer and Light.
 

The Pennsylvania Forest Stewardship Program provides publications on a variety of topics related to woodland management. For a list of free publications, call 800 234 9473 (toll free), send email to RNRext@psu.edu, or write to Forest Stewardship Program, Forest Resources Extension, The Pennsylvania State University, 320 Forest Resources Building, University Park, PA 16802.

 

The Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry and USDA Forest Service, in Partnership with Penn State's Forest Resource Extension, sponsor the Forest Stewardship Program in Pennsylvania.