Regeneration
The most recent regeneration survey was conducted in the summer of 2021, two full growing seasons after planting. The survey indicates that the site is off to a promising start to reaching the objective of maintaining forested condition by becoming a successfully regenerated diverse, mixed hardwood and conifer stand.
As seen in the linked Table 2. 2021 Regeneration Summary: Trees Per Acre and Plot Frequency by Species and Size Class, and by the crop tree suitability ratings shown in Table 3 below, two growing seasons after the harvest and planting treatment there is a mixture of desirable regeneration that is a good to fair ecological fit for this WFn64 NPC site:
- Red maple* is the dominant regenerating species by far, with the greatest number of stems and a very consistent presence across almost the entire 1.5 acre site. Average height of seedlings was about 3 feet, with a few larger sapling sprouts present as well.
- Tamarack seedlings with an average height of 2 to 3 feet were present on half of our plots.
- Yellow birch seedlings with an average height of 2 to 3 feet were present on 25% of our plots. It is only present on the eastern half or so of the study site.
- Paper birch regeneration averaging 3 feet in height is present in low amounts and very low frequency.
- Balsam fir regeneration from 1 to 5 inches DBH is present only on the eastern portion of the site, at low amounts and low frequency.
- Basswood, aspen and red oak regeneration is present in low amounts and very low frequency, with average heights of about 2 feet.
- There is a small amount of green ash and elm regeneration present, however these are not crop tree options due to Dutch elm disease and emerald ash borer impacts.
*A few of the stems tallied as red maple may be silver maple. We could not positively differentiate when we collected data.
Table 3. WFn64 NPC Crop Tree Suitability Ratings for Regenerating Species
Species
|
WFn64 Crop Tree Suitability Rating
|
Red Maple
|
Good
|
Tamarack
|
Good
|
Yellow Birch
|
Good
|
Paper Birch
|
Good
|
Balsam Fir
|
Fair
|
Basswood
|
Not rated
|
Aspen
|
Not rated
|
Red Oak
|
Not rated
|
Green ash
|
NA
|
Elm
|
NA
|
Observations on artificial and natural origin regeneration
Four species were planted on the site: red maple, silver maple, bur oak and swamp white oak.
We found zero surviving bur or swamp white oak on the study area itself, although forestry staff has observed some surviving seedlings in the adjacent stand. We should also note that while our survey was thorough, it is possible that we missed a few very small stems in the very heavy vegetative competition. Future surveys will help to tell the definitive story on survival of planted bur and swamp white oak in the study area.
It is impossible to conclusively discern planted or natural origin at this point for most of the smaller red/silver maple seedlings. However, we think those with multiple stems within a foot or two of each other are likely natural origin, since they would probably not be planted that close to each other.
Origin has been natural seeding or sprouting for all other regenerating species found on the site.
Residual overstory trees
We were most interested in regeneration for this study, so the residual overstory trees are not a major part of the story here. However, we want to include data on residual overstory trees to give a full picture of site conditions. The data in linked Table 4. Basal Area (ft2/ac.) of Trees > 5” DBH by Species and Diameter Class shows average basal area of residual tree stems that fell on our randomized sample plots.
Ground cover vegetation
We did not do any formal vegetation surveys for ground cover vegetation but noted that the harvested stand had plants typical of a wet meadow and young wet forest. These plants include: cattails and wetland sedges, ostrich fern, sensitive fern, wetland asters, and native shrubs like alder, willows, winterberry, dogwoods, and currents. We did find low levels of common and glossy buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica and Frangula alnus, respectively) in places too.