||To determine the effects of 3 cutting and 3 seedbed treatments
on white ash regeneration.
||expected to continue
||Bartlett Experimental Forest, NH. Topography is nearly level.
Soil is black with organic matter to a depth of 3 ; this is
underlain by a mottled sandy layer. Drainage is moderate to
poor, but standing water is never found there during the growing
season, even after a heavy rain. Since white ash in New Hampshire
does best on moist sites, the area is a reasonably favorable
one for this species. There were no ash seed trees in the study
area and nearby vicinity at the beginning of the study. Before
treatments the area was an immature stand about 30 yrs old with
stems ranging from 3" to 12" d.b.h. Red maple sprouts dominated
the overstory among which was scattered blackcherry, paper birch,
white pine, and balsam fir trees. Undergrowth consisted of a
rather light cover of ferns, balsalm fir seedlings, wild-raisin
(Viburnum cassinoides), and other low plants.
||3 0.25-acre plots within 1 compartment.
|Likelihood of Locating Study Areas:
||Compartment cut: removal of trees >2.5"d.b.h. which removed
40%, 20%, and 0% of the basal area of the 3 plots.
Sowings for 0.083-acre subplots:
1) sowing with white ash seeds followed by a scarification with
a Rich fire tool.
2) scarification followed by sowing.
3) sowing on undisturbed litter.
||Seedling estimates; For each estimate, two random strips of
14 0.001-acres each across each subplot were tallied; this amounted
to 33% of the treated areas. Strip locations used in 1959 and
1960 were not the same: 1959 and 1960.
Soil Moisture; Only the upper 3" of soil were sampled. Each
sample was taken separately adjacent to each of two seedlings
in each of the 9 understory-overstory treatment combinations
-- a total of 18 samples per week.
|Variables and Sampling Frequency:
||Numbers of seedlings were estimated at the end of the first
and second growing seasons: 1959 and 1960.
1960: 1- and 2-year old seedlings were counted separately: 1960.
Heights were measured (to the nearest 1/20 " on the 405 competitive
understory seedlings: 1960 and 1961. Also in 1961, stem diameters
1/2 " above the root collar were measured to the nearest 1/64
" with a micrometer.
Soil moisture, as a percentage of oven-dry weight, was determined
from samples taken weekly in summer of 1961 in each understory-overstory
The plots and subplots were relocated, the overstory tallied,
and all white ash seedlings/saplings (>4.5 ' tall) were recorded
by d.b.h. class: 1992.
||data on tally sheets.
summarized on paper.
|Global Change Research Applications:
||Studies of Ecosystem Processes
|Publications and Reports:
||Leak, William B. 1963. effects of seedbed, overstory, and
understory on white ash regeneration in New Hampshire. Res.
Paper NE-2. Upper Darby, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station.
Leak, William B. 1993. Effects of seedbed and overstory on
White Ash regeneration: a 34-year record. Field Note. Durham,
NH: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern
Forest Experiment Station.
||William Leak, USDA Forest Service, P.O. Box 640, Durham NH
03824. (603) 868-7655