Abstract
Forests cover 8.2 million acres in Ohio, encompassing 31 percent of the state's land area (Widmann 2014). Eighty-three percent is privately owned; 17 percent is publicly owned. Most forest land is in the unglaciated southeastern area of Ohio and is dominated by oak-hickory forests (Fig. 1). These provide critical habitat for more than 100 wildlife species, which include at-risk animals such as wood thrush (
Hylocichla mustelina), cerulean warbler (
Setophaga cerulea), and timber rattlesnake (
Crotalus horridus). The topography of these landscapes is highly dissected and creates spatially heterogeneous microenvironments that influence oak-hickory advance regeneration stocking (Iverson et al. 2017). Mature mixed-oak forests grow on a variety of aspects and slope positions with site indices of 55-80. These overstories are dominated by white oak (
Quercus alba), chestnut oak (
Q. prinus), and black oak (
Q. velutina). Midstory and sapling layers are dominated by red maples (
Acer rubrum) and sugar maples (
A. saccharum); however, numerous species including blackgum (
Nyssa sylvatica), yellow-poplar (
Liriodendron tulipifera), beech (
Fagus grandifolia), and sourwood (
Oxydendrum arboreum) are present. Deer pressure is generally lower in Ohio than in Pennsylvania and other eastern U.S. states. Nonnative plant species such as Ailanthus (
Ailanthus altissima), autumn olive (
Elaeagnus umbellata), multiflora rose (
Rosa multiflora), twinberry honeysuckle (
Lonicera involucrata), and stiltgrass (
Microstegium vimineum) are problematic and continue to expand within these forests.
Parent Publication
Citation
Peters, Matthew P.; Rebbeck, Joanne. 2019. Oak SILVAH in Ohio at the landscape scale. In: Stout, Susan L., ed. SILVAH: 50 years of science-management cooperation. Proceedings of the Allegheny Society of American Foresters training session; 2017 Sept. 20-22; Clarion, PA. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-186. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 72-79. https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-GTR-P-186-Paper7.