Post-harvest prescribed burning of oak stands: an alternative to the shelterwood-burn technique?

Prescribed burning of two mixed-oak (Quercus spp.) stands in northwestern Pennsylvania 4 and 5 years after the final removal cut of a three-step shelterwood sequence was investigated. One stand was burned with hot mid-spring fire in May 2005 and the other treated likewise in May 2006. Understory inventories 3 years later showed reductions in black birch (Betula lenta) and red maple (Acer rubrum) seedlings and sprouts by 90 and 50 percent, respectively. Conversely, northern red oak (Q. rubra) reproduction was largely unchanged, as was that of black cherry (Prunus serotina). These stands now appear headed towards becoming northern red oak and black cherry stands instead of being dominated by black birch and red maple.