Philip, I guess the answers to your questions depend a lot on what the goal of the fencing project is.
It's unclear if the clearing and planting option includes fencing or not. If not, it seems like you might end up clearcutting an area and then feeding deer with a lot of oak seedlings, and then end up with a typical succession of less palatable species. If there is fencing, I could see two benefits of this option: 1) you would presumably get the income from the clear cutting; 2) if you also fenced the plot, you may establish an oak forest that might be pretty nice in 75 years or so (assuming that it is only deer that are eating the acorns, which may be a big assumption). Beyond that, it's hard to see the scientific value of this option, if any. On the other hand, the fencing and no management option could be very valuable for documenting the impact that deer are having on local forests without the confounding factor of additional management impacts to consider. Your question: "How is this research normally done" is a very broad question and depends on the details of your site and the desired hypotheses to test. I would recommend taking a look at the relevant literature on deer impacts on forests, which is enormous. You could start with: Russell, F.L., Zippin, D.B., & Fowler, N.L. (2001) Effects of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginiana) on plants, plant populations, and communities: a review. American Midland Naturalist, 146, 1-26. Rooney, T.P. & Waller, D.M. (2003) Direct and indirect effects of white-tailed deer in forest ecosystems. Forest Ecology and Management, 181, 165-176. Horsley, S.B., Stout, S.L., & DeCalesta, D.S. (2003) White-tailed deer impact on the vegetation dynamics of a northern hardwood forest. Ecological Applications, 13, 98-118. As a minimum recommendation, I strongly suggest some kind of pre-fencing survey, in order to document the structure of the vegetation before deer are excluded. You should also select some neighboring areas that are very similar, but not fenced to serve as controls. As for potential solutions, I think they also will depend on why each forester favors their own course of action. But one that occurs to me is that you might do a crossed design where you have two main factors: fencing vs. clearcutting + planting. Then you can see whether successfully establishing an oak forest depends on deer exclusion, and both foresters can do some of what they want. Good luck. Matt Landis **************************************************** R. Matthew Landis, Ph.D. Dept. Biology Middlebury College Middlebury, VT 05753 tel.: 802.443.3484 ************************************************** >-----Original Message----- >From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Philip Shirk >Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 8:20 AM >To: [email protected] >Subject: Deer browsing > >A private camp in New York has received a grant from the state >to enclose a >three acre plot for a deer browsing study. However, the state forester >wants them to clear cut the area and plant acorns in that >space. A forester >connected to the camp is very strongly against that idea and >would rather >fence in the area and not change anything other than the fence. > >The grant is in limbo if the two sides cannot reach an agreement. Does >anyone have any comments or suggestions as to: >1) How this research is normally done. >2) What the benefit to clearing the area and planting acorns may be (as >opposed to leaving it go and fencing it in). >3) Any potential solutions. > >Thank you all, >Philip Shirk >
