WVPTS_Demo_Early

West Virginia Potomac Tributary Strategy Forested Riparian Buffer Demonstration Projects Early Results: July-August 2005 Click here for 2nd & 3rd Year Results Update: January 2008 New June 2007. Deer exclusion fencing experiment is designed to test an innovative and relatively low cost method to protect riparian forest plantings from destructive or even catastrophic damage from deer browsing activities.
Riparian planting at Yellow Spring, WV The first site selected for this demonstration project was near Yellow Spring in Hampshire County, along the banks of the Cacapon River. This site has, sadly, been a highly visible demonstration of how difficult it is to establish trees in this area. Saplings were planted and replaced repeatedly at this site in the mid-1990s (click here to view a Flash slide show of the original planting). They were not watered or protected from deer browse and few, if any, have survived Mostly native hardwood trees were planted in April 2005 on a 20' X 20' spacing, and shrubs and smaller trees were planted on a 12' X 12' spacing. Each plant has a weed mat to reduce competition and retain moisture. All saplings were planted in tubes, primarily for protection from browsing. On July 29, 2005, CI conducted a rapid assessment of the condition of this riparian planting. This site has heavy "weed" growth that makes it difficult to find the plantings (see picture below), and no attempt was made to find all of the plants. Trees totally encased in tubes had a high survival rate (see graph at right), generally lush leaf growth, and little damage from insects (and obviously not browsing). Shrubs and small trees in tubes fared nearly as well as the large trees (graph below left). Plants that were poking above the tops of tubes (mostly shrubs and small trees in 2' tubes) had a high survival rate with healthy leaves in the tubes and poor leaves (if any) above the tubes due to browsing and insect damage. 56% exhibited browse damage (graph below right).



Riparian planting along the South Branch The second site is located along the South Branch of the Potomac River downstream of Romney, WV. The stream was fenced in the late 1990s by the US Fish and Wildlife Service Partners with Wildlife program. The landowners hoped that substantial natural tree recruitment would occur at the site over time, but it has not. Native hardwood trees were planted in April 2005 more or less on a 20' X 20' spacing, and shrubs and smaller trees were planted on a 12' X 12' spacing. At the South Branch site, half of the trees and shrubs were planted with tubes and half without to assess relative success and survival. On August 26, 2005, CI and NRCS staff conducted a rapid assessment of the condition of this riparian planting. This site has heavy "weed" growth that makes it difficult to find the plantings, and no attempt was made to find all of the plants. Preliminary results of "tube" plantings. Trees totally encased in tubes had a reasonably high survival rate (although not as high as at Yellow Spring), generally lush leaf growth, and little damage from insects (and obviously not browsing). Shrubs and small trees in tubes fared somewhat better than the large trees, and nearly as well as at Yellow Spring. Plants that were poking above the tops of tubes (mostly shrubs and small trees in 2' tubes) had a high survival rate with healthy leaves in the tubes and very poor leaves (if any) above the tubes due to browsing and insect damage. 93% of the plants susceptible to browsing were severely browsed (graph below left, picture below right).



Preliminary results of "no-tube" plantings. Plants without tubes (weedmats only) fared poorly, with >50% mortality (graph at right) and nearly universal and severe browse damage on surviving plants (graph below), with the few existing leaves very small in comparison to the same plants in tubes. Of the surviving no-tube plants, the vast majority are of one species - Washington Hawthorne (*Crataegus phaenopyrum*). The photo at lower right below is entitled "Still Life with Deer Poop" - we assume it was trying to make a point.

	Photo at left is of Steve Ritz (USDA-NRCS) standing among the tall weeds at the South Branch site. Weeds at the Yellow Spring site are substantially thicker. This project is funded by the Chesapeake Bay Program and administered by the WV Conservation Agency and WV Division of Environmental Protection.