Monday, April 14, 2008

Dr. Finley Presentation

David Gillen
Fort 250 Forest Management Practices

Jim Finley Presentation

On Thursday April 10, 2008 Jim Finley, an expert on Forest Regeneration gave a presentation at Penn State Mont Alto Campus. Dr. Finley presented his topic on oak regeneration in Pennsylvania, and the problems that are occurring with oak regeneration.
Dr. Finley presented several key points that are hindering oak generation across the state. These problems include decreased forested land in Pennsylvania because of parcelization. By definition this is an increase in the subdivisions of forested property. He addressed the fact that today more people own smaller tracts of land rather than owning larger tracts of land. The statistic of 744,500 people own land in Pennsylvania that average 16 acres. Dr. Finley added that as land is passed from generation to generation it becomes more and more parcelized. The problem of parcelization causes problems for Forester because it is hard to manage timber on smaller tracts of land. For example 100 ac. is subdivided into five 20 ac. lots. This causes problems from a forestry perspective because each individual land owner has different expectations of what they intend to manage for on their property. However, programs are in place to help with this problem. One of these groups is identified as NIPF.
Dr. Finley also talked about why red maple and black birch are taking over as the most abundant species of regeneration, and that they have become 1 & 2 on the list of most common trees in Pennsylvania. Dr. Finley addressed that a fern understory is one of the problems with newly regenerating oaks. This fern understory is creating too much shade for the lower canopy, which is hindering regenerating tree species such as oak. Dr. Finley also added that deer are a problem to newly regeneration oaks in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Finley added that 50% - 60% of oak regeneration is coming from stump sprouts. Some other statistics that Dr. Finely presented was board foot volumes are at the highest point ever. Also mentioned was people are happy with high grading timber. Dr. Finley said this is due to a lack of public knowledge about forest management practices.
The article that I found pertaining to oak regeneration came straight from University Park by Dr. Finley. This article mentions that Penn State’s School of Forestry has been quietly studying oak regeneration for the past 11 years. The results have shown that 50% of forested land in Pennsylvania is not producing adequate regeneration for replacing harvested trees. Dr. Finley expresses that a species change from northern red oak to other less commercially valued tree species. Finley expresses that red maple, black birch, and black cherry are not preferred by deer for browsing. Now, these three tree species are #1, 2, &3 on Pennsylvania’s most common trees respectively, red oak being 10th. However, Dr. Finley does not believe that over browse by deer on oak is not the sole reason for what is happening to Penn’s woods.


http://aginfo.psu.edu/News/06May/Oak.htm

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