I have always heard that logging slash – tree tops, limbs, and branches – protects young seedlings against deer browse. After a tree service job at my house, I had a lot of tree branches to clean up. I decided to spread them out in my woods and set up a backyard experiment.
I had some large yard trees taken down by an arborist crew in May 2024 to increase sunlight in the backyard. Two sugar maples and one red maple.
An arborist crew fells three yard trees.
The tree service company, Catskill Mountain Wood out of Roxbury, NY, left me with neat piles of logs and branches to process into firewood.
A neat workspace to process firewood.
I made my way through the big logs first and made a holz hausen.
Check out this MyWoodlot blog post about building holz hausens.
The firewood processing area 2 months after the tree service job.
The final effort, and the most tedious, was the big pile of branches.
The three yard trees had many branches, hence the heaping pile.
My goal was to save anything down to a minimum diameter of about 3 to 4 inches for firewood and kindling. To keep a neat and safe workspace, I had to keep dragging smaller branches out of the way.
Then I had an idea. What if I could drag the smaller branches into the woods and provide some protection for tree seedlings in the understory? I have always heard that logging slash affords some protection against deer browse. Why not set up a backyard experiment?
My 2 acres of woods has some seedlings but no understory to speak of, which is indicative of heavy deer browse. Many seedlings are no more than a few inches tall. A few are about 6 inches tall. Perhaps the slash might help the seedlings grow taller.
Small red maple seedlings.
Larger red maple seedlings. About as good as it gets in my woodsr.
Red oak seedling.
I started spreading the slash in places where I saw a lot of seedlings.
Slash spread out in a small area with relatively high seedling abundance.
Do you think this will work? I will be happy with any increase in seedling height. However, I expect that if this happens, deer will simply eat the ones that stand proud above the slash. Time will tell. I could also install a low-cost deer fence around the slashed in area.
Check out these MyWoodlot resources about using a deer fence to protect native plants
