TITLE:
Rehabilitating Degraded Hardwood Stands on a Bottomland Terrace Site with Overstory Removal and Oak Enrichment Planting: 14-Year Results
AUTHORS:
Matthew G. Olson, Shaik Hossain, Kyle Cunningham, Matthew H. Pelkki, Chris Stuhlinger
KEYWORDS:
Southern USA Hardwoods, Supplemental Planting, Nuttall Oak, Quercus texana
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Forestry,
Vol.8 No.4,
September
12,
2018
ABSTRACT: Exploitative harvesting can
lower stand quality in the short term and diminish forest productivity over the long term. In 2003, a
rehabilitation experiment was installed in a southern hardwood stand on a
bottomland terrace site, degraded by periodic exploitative cutting, to test the
effectiveness of overstory removal and oak enrichment planting for improving
stand quality and composition. Overstory removal treatments included
clearcutting, stand improvement partial cutting, and an uncut control.
Overstory treatment units were either planted with Nuttall oak (Quercus texana) seedlings or not
planted. We revisited this study in 2017 to assess the outcome of oak
enrichment planting across levels of overstory removal. Results in year 14
indicated poor survival of planted oaks under all overstory removal treatments (14% - 24%) and minimal
height growth (0.3 m in 13 years) in areas treated with partial cutting and in
uncut areas. Growth performance of planted oaks was significantly enhanced by
clearcutting (p