Oak Decline

[Don P]

This is a good article on oak decline that came in this morning

https://forestupdate.frec.vt.edu/content/dam/forestupdate_frec_vt_edu/newsletter/archives/2018/32_2/Chamberlin.pdf

[mike_belben]

Good info Don.  


Ive been casually studying the hardwood mix in my area which is pretty similar to VA minus walnut. I have developed a conviction that with our current mature oak logging practices, coupled with the typical non-management after a "select cut" (rhymes with high grade) is done, that replacement of the stand with shade tolerant species is nearly inevitable.  The article mentions poplar and red maple.  Add in gum and sourwood, youve got my replacement stand. 


I am starting a storm cleanup job now.  Big, big prime red oaks all grown on shallow clay over pennsylvanian sandstone ledge that prevented a tap root.  they blew over one after another, turning up 10ft diameter root matts only a foot thick, revealing clean ledge underneath.  

  Under this super closed canopy was just enough light for some shade tolerant shrub trees to establish, but not oak or hickory, any shade intolerant dropped dead long ago.   Now with an enormous spotlight beaming down from the new openings, these twisted softwood turds will grow like wildfire and eventually achieve canopy top.  Their seed throw will increase in volume and range.  They also grow much much faster than oak and hickory from my observation.  Without intervention i see no possible way for our oak forests to continue producing high quality sawlogs.  Ive been trying to raise awareness about this an encourage aggressive TSI.  If there arent any good oaks left here in 40 years, the sawmills surviving on them will go and the loggers will suffer that much more. 


While i am cleaning up, i am also culling undesireable species and trees with bad form.  Where nothing good has been established in the new opening, i endeavor to leave a blank slate for nature to put something good there.  This may make a bit of a bald patch in the landowners lifetime, but its only a spec of time for the forest itself.  Im confident that 150 years from now, the best timber clumps will be in these bad haircuts i am leaving behind now. 

[samandothers]

Thanks Don, it is an interesting article.  It makes sense.  I did some clean up on trails this past week.  Wind took its toll on some unhealthy trees.

[Rhodemont]

Very good article on oak decline.  I see it here in Rhode Island.  My stand is primarily mature oak with thick undergrowth.  Red maple, beech, and poplar are coming up every place they can and pine is moving in any place I cleared the undergrowth.  My forester wants me to leave the tops of the oaks I log as a tangle to keep the deer from getting to the oaks trying to sprout and give them a chance before other species get ahead of them.  It seems to be working as I see some young oaks coming up through the tops/tangles I left behind several years ago.  

[Southside]

All while at the same time Virginia collects an additional tax on forest products so that it can in turn pay the landowner to re-plant - wait for it - wait - Loblolly pine..... Can't make this stuff up.  

[Klunker]

  My forester wants me to leave the tops of the oaks I log as a tangle to keep the deer from getting to the oaks trying to sprout and give them a chance before other species get ahead of them.  It seems to be working as I see some young oaks coming up through the tops/tangles I left behind several years ago.  

This is good to hear. I am doing TSI on my woodlot, cutting/girdling Aspen, Thinning Hickory and Sugar Maple, and removing any larger Red Maple. I leave all Oaks, Red or White and am thinning around them.
Where I drop and leave the Aspen I was wondering if the tops would provide a shelter from deer to protect seedlings. Good to hear it seems to work.
I have also read in other areas about using fire in woodlots, particularly a Oak Savanna type of area. It supposedly kept down some of the brush and certain tree species.
Has anyone any experience in using fire in a Northern Hardwood situation?