In the eastern United States, oak regeneration is often sparse or poorly competitive after timber harvests, leading to decreased oak stocking in future stands. This trend is more apparent on higher-quality sites where oaks seedlings compete with several faster growing species.

We looked at woody species regeneration at 2 sites that represented xeric and mesic, oak-dominated forests in the Ridge and Valley region of Virginia. Six regeneration treatments were applied 4 years ago: control, commercial clearcut, silvicultural clearcut, leave-tree, shelterwood and group selection. The group selection harvest area was subsequently stratified into 2 treatments: the cuts themselves and the uncut portion of the treatment area. At the time of harvest, both sites had relatively scarce oak advance regeneration.

On the mesic site, there were higher numbers of oak stems in the clearcut, leave tree, group selection openings, and shelterwood (7000-8000 stems/ac) as compared to the control, the uncut section of the group selection area, and the commercial clearcut (1500-4000 stems/ac). Oak was a higher percentage of stems in the codominant crown class in the clearcut, leave tree and group selection openings (25-40%) as compared to the control, uncut sections of the group selection area, commercial clearcut and shelterwood (10-20%). Many of the other codominant stems were understory species such as blackgum and sourwood, and will soon be overtaken by the faster growing oak.

On the xeric site, all treatments had a similar density of oaks (5000-6000 stems/ac) with the exception of the control and the shelterwood (3000-3500 stems/ac). Oak was a higher percentage of codominant stems in the clearcut, leave tree, commercial clearcut and shelterwood (50-60%) as compared to the cut and uncut sections of the group selection harvest and the control (5-20%).

Site quality influenced stand composition. Significant numbers of yellow poplar and smaller amounts of northern red oak were present on the mesic site while these species were virtually absent on the xeric site. Chestnut oak was the most dominant oak species on the mesic site, averaging 43% of codominant oak stems in all treatments. Chestnut oak and scarlet oak were the most dominant oaks on the xeric site, averaging 40 and 45% of codominant oaks stems in all treatments, respectively. In all treatments, oaks are competing with a number of other species, but are expected to remain a major component of the future stand on these low to medium quality sites.