NY Forest Indicators and HealthRegeneration and Browse Status Trajectories for long-term sustainability of forest values are set in the forest understory during the stand-initiation stage of development. This makes regeneration management a key factor for sustaining healthy, productive forests. Sustainable forest management strategies can promote a mosaic of forest structure and age-classes across a landscape and create various habitat types, which contribute to the maintenance of biological diversity. Forest restoration management and policy aimed at establishing healthy young forest habitat (YFH) are critically important but are complicated by multiple stressors and their interactions (e.g., climate variability, invasive plants, herbivory, and wildfire exclusion). Landowner preferences and perceptions surrounding large-scale treatments necessary to create YFH are also major obstacles to the creation and maintenance of such habitat. The impacts of large ungulate browsing of young tree seedlings are a paramount impediment to establishing viable forest regeneration. Areas where forest lands have had at least moderate browse impacts require consideration of whether or not ameliorative treatments need to be included in regeneration management prescriptions. In New York, the primary browse agent is the white-tailed deer:
The ecological implications of browsing have acute long-term impacts on forest composition, structure, and function and are becoming more prominent in the minds of managers and landowners. The New York Forest Owners Association (2018) has concluded that deer browsing is the number one problem threatening the future of woodlands in New York, and forest regeneration management will need to consider local browse conditions during the stand-initiation stage across much of the State. Overall, browsing has made regeneration of forests difficult, and as forests continue to mature, the rich array of goods, services, and wildlife habitat available from YFH is missing across most of New York. Young forest characteristics set the trajectory for composition, structure, and function over the life of a forest. This means that values the public has come to expect from healthy young forest are largely missing, and novel approaches will be needed to restore healthy young forest under stress to replace older forests as stand-initiation events occur, e.g., mortality or harvest. Invasive Species Invasive species are non-native species that can cause harm to the environment, the economy or human health. Invasives come from all around the world. As international trade increases, so does the rate of invasive species introductions. Invasive species threaten nearly every aspect of our world and are one of the greatest threats to New York's biodiversity. They cause or contribute to:
Harmful insects and diseases that threaten trees and forests in New York State include:
Diseases Beech leaf disease - Beech leaf disease (BLD) affects and kills both native and ornamental beech tree species. It is associated with a nematode, Litylenchus crenatae mccannii. This disease has only been discovered in recent years and much about it, including the full cause and how it spreads, is still unknown.Symptoms of BLD include:
Oak wilt disease -The oak wilt fungus blocks the flow of water and nutrients from the roots to the crown, causing the leaves to wilt and fall off, usually killing the tree. Red oaks (scarlet oak, pin oak, black oak, etc.) can die within a few weeks to six months, and the disease spreads quickly from tree to tree. White oaks (bur oak, chestnut oak, etc.), often take years to die and the disease usually cannot spread to additional trees. Symptoms of oak wilt infection are often very noticeable in red oak species, but aren't easily seen in white oaks.
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