Article by Tim Brown on Highstead’s Ed Faison’s research on the browsing effect of deer and moose on New England forests
Article by Tim Brown https://highstead.net/who-we-are/our-people/timothy-brown/ on some of the work of Highstead Foundation’s Senior Ecologist Ed Faison https://highstead.net/who-we-are/our-people/ed-faison/. Ed has been at Highstead since 2006 after working for several years at Harvard Forest as a research assistant. He holds masters degrees from the University of Vermont and Harvard, and a PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His work focuses on deer and moose interactions with forests, long-term forest change, wildlands, and natural climate solutions. Ed also advises conservation groups, educators, and land trusts about stewardship and forest monitoring.
Article link: https://highstead.net/insights/understanding-browsers-and-forest-regeneration/
We know deer change your gardens. But are deer and moose destroying or greatly impacting the understory and wild forest ecosystems in New England? Yes and no, and more so no! Read the article!
“The message people often hear is deer and moose have caused a regeneration failure,” Faison says. “But when the canopy opens up, these animals can’t control the forest. Forests here in New England regenerate in gaps, and what we see is this forest is perfectly capable of regenerating— even when it is being heavily browsed—if you open up the canopy.”
How does he know? Experiments with “exclosures”. Deer exclosures (fenced off areas) at Highstead and other forest research locations, in maturing forests without canopy openings, offer opportunities to measure changes relative to “not fenced” or “open” areas. Based on surveys in 2007, 2013, 2018, and 2023. Faison’s research suggests that in addition to deer, light is limiting regeneration and plant abundance and diversity.
“Deer at high densities can really clean out the understory; the forest can look like it’s slowly dying with no tree saplings available to replace the canopy ones,” he says. “But the real test is when you open up the canopy, either naturally from insects or wind damage, or from a patch cut harvest. Can the deer, at the same density, prevent that forest from growing back? The answer is almost invariably ‘no.’