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Welcome to the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center!
Message from the Director...
Dr. Danny C. Lee
EFETAC is addressing a variety of complex issues that demand cross-disciplinary integration, collaboration, and creativity. Our work complements ongoing efforts within and outside the Forest Service and builds on a wealth of existing information. Our scientists collaborate with an extensive national and international research community and focus on research that is relevant to rural and urban forest threat issues. More...
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Featured Forest Threat
Deer Browsing
White-tailed deer, through browsing, have the ability to change plant communities where they live. The changes they can impose on the forest occur over time and to the untrained-eye are subtle; however, to those trained in forest ecology and other fields, the changes can approach catastrophic.
What is deer browsing? Deer, as people, have food that they prefer to eat. [Click here for examples of preferred foods, or browse.] When preferred browse is abundant, and deer numbers are in balance, the community functions normally. When preferred browse is scarce, and deer numbers are too high, then the plant community-balance shifts rapidly and, perhaps, permanently.
Why is deer browsing a concern? Deer food preferences raise concerns about forest health, resilience, and sustainability. Browsing can shift the competitive advantage among plant species and where deer numbers are or have been extremely high, the shift can be ecologically devastating as non-preferred browse species move to dominate the site. In some cases, those species that dominate the site become stable plant communities that resist successional change, tending to perpetuate themselves and exclude other plant species. For example, in the hardwood forests of the northeast and north-central regions of the United States, the extent of fern cover is increasing. Single frond fern species (e.g., New York, hayscented, and bracken), which spread easily by extending their rhizomes to occupy new territory increasingly dominate forest understories. Deer do not eat any of these fern species.
Deer are a natural part of the ecosystem and no one wants to eliminate them from the forest. Rather, forest managers want to ensure that deer numbers are in balance with their habitat so that they do not adversely affect natural plant community development.
Source: Caring for Deer and Forests: A Resource Center for Eastern North America
Above: Deer have browsed a sprouting hardwood after a spring fire in north central Pennsylvania (the Bull Run fire). Given high deer densities, stand regeneration becomes a concern. Photo by Steve Norman, U.S. Forest Service
