Rehabilitating a Young Northern Red Oak Planting with Tree Shelters

Abstract

Methods for deer browse protection are becoming a necessary aspect of hardwood silviculture, particularly with practices such as artificial regeneration of oaks. This study tested the effectiveness of two types of deer protection for aiding the rehabilitation of a failed northern red oak planting in southern Indiana. Tree shelters, bar soap repellent, and no protection (control) treatments were applied to 1 yr old, coppice-origin oak shoots arising from 8 yr old root-stocks of an unsuccessful 1980 old-field research planting. Oaks in tree shelters exhibited significantly greater early shoot growth than did unsheltered oaks. This height advantage was maintained, but not increased once tree crowns emerged from the shelter environment. After 5 growing seasons, oaks receiving the soap repellent treatment began to increase their rate of height growth. Continuation of this trend could negate early growth advantages of tree shelters. The use of tree shelters may improve the success of attempts to regenerate preferred browse species such as oaks, but concerns of practicality and economics remain. North. J. Appl. For. 13(1):24-29.

Weed control and use of tree shelters: improving restoration success of degraded north Patagonian forests

“…Height of N. dombeyi seedlings was not affected by the use of tree shelters neither in the xeric site, and nor in the mesic site, at least until the second growing season (prior to the browsing effect). This result contrasted with those of several hardwood (Davies 1985;Tuley 1985;Gillespie et al 1996;Bendfeldt et al 2001;McCreary and Tecklin 2001;Dorji et al 2020) and conifer species (Ward et al 2000;Jacobs 2011), which had shown a pronounced positive impact on height with the use of tree shelters. It seems that our results agree with those of the authors who indicate that the net effect of tree shelters on plant growth appeared to be site-and/or species-dependent (Frearson and Weiss 1987;Potter 1988;Burger et al 1992;Buresti and Sestini 1994;Ward and Stephens 1995;West et al 1999;Ponder 2003;Famiani et al 2007;Puértolas et al 2010;Oliet and Jacobs 2007;Piñeiro et al 2013).…”

Post‐Planting Treatments Increase Growth of Oregon White Oak (Quercus garryana Dougl. ex Hook.) Seedlings

“…This increased height growth produced seedlings that were significantly more slender (i.e., greater H:D). This phenomenon has been attributed to lack of stem movement inside solid‐walled shelters (Kjelgren & Rupp 1997; Johansson 2004) and etiolation due to the reduction in light (Gillespie et al 1996). Once oak seedlings grow beyond the top of tree shelters, there is a significant increase in stem diameter growth rate accompanied by a decrease in height growth rate, resulting in a sturdier stem (McCreary & Tecklin 2001).…”