Restore NY Woodlands in Action: How EQIP Funding Can Help Us Win the Battle

摘要

Stalled Woodland Conservation Goals: Our 75 acre woodlot in Otsego County is in trouble. We have a bevy of interfering vegetation ranging from honeysuckle to ferns to diseased American beech that is preventing regeneration of our woods. Several standsin our woodlot need to be thinned. We have a high concentration of deer competing for limited food sources — the most important of which includes various northeastern hardwood seedlings. Ours is a typical scenario in lovely rural but economically depressed areas of upstate New York. In the past, our woodlot was 'high-graded' — harvesting the best trees and leaving behind the worst due to economic needs of former owners. A quick timber harvest brought much needed cash to pay ever-increasing New York state property taxes. Deer browsing of desirable seedlings has been intensive which allows the beech and non-native invasives a foothold. The result is a woodlot characterized by shade tolerant American beech with its wide spreading branches and robust sapling networks throwing a shadow over much of the forest floor. In turn, the beech permits the introduction of prolific fern rhizomes that multiply and displace desirable sapling growth. Add the aggressive non-native invasives such as honeysuckle and intensive deer browsing into the mix and you have bleak longer term prospects for healthy woodlot regeneration.