Clean Forests

wolfman · Mar 25, 2016

Anyone else notice? Here in southwest Pa you can see very far into the wooded areas; easy to walk in the woods. For the past dozen years or so it seemed the forests had much underbrush. This year, just the trees. Must have been the weather this past summer. We had a real dry spell last half of August and first part of Sept.

RandyB(MI) · Mar 25, 2016

You may also be getting an abundance of deer. They will clean up that young underbrush real quick. If they eat the buds off often enough it will die out.

GlenIdaho · Mar 25, 2016

Its part of a forest management technique that has been around for awhile. It is designed to reduce fire danger due to human traffic on highways. Looks good too!

Bonnan · Mar 26, 2016

An interesting observation that I didn't think anyone notice except me. I've lived all my life (81 years) here in SW PA. and I agree but think it has been going on gradually for many years. Spent time in the woods every year studying flora and fauna and collecting evidence. It is incredible the degradation of the under story.

Of note I did not see a deer until age 16 and turkey even much later. There has been a direct correlation as these increased in abundance other living organism decreased. Like Ruffed Grouse, rare wildflowers etc. I see hillsides that become unstable and slide because of inadequate plant cover.

There is very little acreage under forest management here (98% privately held); this is not the Far West.
Acid rain also plays a part in the changing landscape but mostly deer and to some extent naturally older hardwoods. Did you compare photos of the countryside from early 1900's with today? What a contrast!

sms · Mar 26, 2016

Deer, around here it is a fact that they control the growth of our forest. The species they like to browse do not survive and those they don't eat do. They recommend leaving hardwood tops after logging to protect the emerging seedlings. In one area where there was no undergrowth they did a study and fenced areas against deer, undergrowth immediately began to recover, deer were overpopulated and undernourished a large one was about 70 pounds.

Weldon K · Mar 26, 2016

What you are seeing is result of deer feeding on underbrush. Around here, twigs and branches on field border trees and brush is gone from ground level to as high as a deer can reach.

Dieselrider · Mar 26, 2016

Agree with what the other have said about the deer. An adult deer will consume between 10 and 15 pounds of browse per day. Just think about that number. If you went into the woods and snipped off browse until you accumulated 15 pounds in a bag. That is what each adult deer can consume each day.

This becomes a real problem in more populated areas where deer cannot be managed with hunting. Too many deer will eliminate regrowth in the forest.

rick1 · Mar 26, 2016

i would also bet there are tall trees shading the area keeping it from growing as fast cut some of those tall trees down and see what happens
RICK

Glen SW Wi · Mar 26, 2016

Sure wish the deer around here would browse on the Prickly Ash and Russian Olive (some call it Autumn Olive). Have plenty of deer and they seem to avoid the before mentioned trash so they have a place to hide during the deer season.

hd6gtom · Mar 26, 2016

I have to disagree with you about the deer, We have thousands of them in this county, central Iowa. You cant walk thru the timber for the brush, don't believe me--come look. they would rather destroy our gardens, corn, beans, hay, fruit or nut trees and any other things we plant, seed, or attempt to manage to make a small amount of money.

ss55 · Mar 26, 2016

Look up, is the upper canopy thick enough to shade out the smaller trees and shrubs?

Bonnan · Mar 26, 2016

I can not speak for Iowa but it is a different story here in SW Pa. Game Commission has proved my observations by completely fencing off areas ~10 acres or so.

David G · Mar 26, 2016

To many crops here for the deer to consider underbrush.

GeneMO · Mar 26, 2016

(quoted from post at 11:19:49 03/26/16) To many crops here for the deer to consider underbrush.

Deer are primarily "browsers" They like to nip the tender buds, sprigs, ends of branches.

I noticed some timber like that a few years ago when I was doing a crop insurance claim. There had been a bunch of development in the area, bunch of timbering on another tract, and the creek bottoms had been flooded for a good while.

The deer, and they were somewhat overpopulated, moved into this mans hillside, and over several months cleaned it.

It can happen.

Gene

Steamboat · Mar 26, 2016

"Underbrush" is the life milk of most wildlife species, including deer. Most of the understory species are what we term "soft mast" i.e. dogwood, viburnum, honeysuckle, grape and whatever is shade-tolerant in your area. This is supposing you are speaking of hardwood stands such as oak, hickory, beech and the like which offer "hard mast" Closed canopy pine stands have little if any understory, thus little food value for wildlife but do offer good cover. Overpopulated deer will form a "browse line" at about 6 ft, consuming most everything below that height, especially in the far north where they yard up in the winter in white cedar swamps. So... bottom line is it all depends upon your objectives in forest management be it wildlife, timber production, esthetics or a combination of all the above. Small clearcuts or even selective cutting can provide good wildlife food and cover.

Fullers Farmalls · Mar 28, 2016

I gotta say I hike Greene County and I don't see it. I have noticed that posted areas seem to be thicker so maybe it is deer browse.

Clean Forests

wolfman

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RandyB(MI)

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GlenIdaho

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Bonnan

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sms

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Weldon K

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Dieselrider

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rick1

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Glen SW Wi

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hd6gtom

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ss55

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Bonnan

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David G

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GeneMO

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Steamboat

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