Ungulate Browsing and Foundation Tree Regeneration in Central New England 2010

In the summer of 2010, we initiated a landscape-scale observational study on ungulate habitat use and browsing on foundation tree species (Quercus spp. and Tsuga canadensis) in unlogged forests. Seventy-two forest plots were sampled across several ecoregions in central and western Massachusetts, southern Vermont and New Hampshire and Northern Connecticut. Tree seedlings, overstory characteristics, browsing, pellet piles, and shrub densities were sampled; and site attributes such as mean annual temperature and forest fragmentation were examined.