Single-tree harvesting reduces survival and growth of oak stump sprouts in the Missouri Ozark Highlands

TL;DRAbstract

Regeneration and recruitment into the overstory is critical to the success of using uneven-aged systems to sustain oak forests. We evaluated survival and growth of white oak (Quercus alba L.), black oak (Q. velutina Lam.), and scarlet oak (Q. coccinea Muenchh.) stump sprouts 10 years after harvesting Ozark forests by the clearcut, group selection, or single-tree selection method. After 10 years, the percent of stumps with live sprouts was high for all species in clearcuts (75 percent) and group selection openings (ranging from 60 to 78 percent depending on species), but was substantially less in single-tree selection units (ranging from 32 to 50 percent depending on species).

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