Applying Federal Resources: Making Progress in Ohio

White oak currently dominates much of Ohio’s eight million acres of forestland, but its future is far from certain. A USDA report that’s published every five years reported that, from 2011 to 2016, Ohio’s white oak supply decreased almost 10% in net volume, with nearly a 15% decrease in the number of white oak trees measuring five inches or greater in diameter. Stated another way, Ohio’s white oaks are being removed faster than they’re regenerating. It’s an issue that will affect many private landowners, as the USDA estimates that families and individuals own 70% of Ohio’s forestland, 63% of which are oak/hickory forests.

One such landowner is Jim Savage, a Tree Farmer with about 450 acres in southeastern Ohio. During a harvest operation six years ago, he removed about three-fourths of the tall trees from a five- acre oak-dominated stand that was in decline. The few white oak trees that remained after this shelterwood harvest provided acorns for regeneration, while the newly opened canopy partially allowed light to hit the ground and promote new growth.

With funding partly provided through NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), his land was the site of Ohio’s first prescribed burn aimed at oak regeneration on private land. According to Savage, a semi-retired commercial litigation attorney, “Oak is highly resistant to fire and other trees are not, so you basically run a fire through the area to kill all the seedlings that are outcompeting the oak. The little oak trees aren’t harmed at all, and then they’re free to shoot up and dominate the stand as you had intended.”

The fire was conducted in November 2020 with only one hitch: the cost. “With the hilly terrain of southern Ohio, the creation of fire breaks and the labor necessary to safely accomplish the burn and watch it overnight before putting out the hot patches the next day is very expensive,” Savage said. With an increase in the use of prescribed fire in the region, more research, training, and coordination of practices to evaluate and reduce costs will be needed.

Fortunately, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry is addressing this issue in the hope of significantly increasing the EQIP pay item to make this practice feasible by 2022. “It’s been recommended that I repeat the burn several more times every two to three years. I’d like to do so in 2022 if the pay item is increased to a realistic level,” Savage said.

“There’s a lot of pressure on our remaining white oak and we want to grow as much of it as possible so we can have it both for wildlife and economic purposes.”
— Mitch Farley

Mitch Farley, a Tree Farmer with 82 acres in southeastern Ohio who recently retired from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, is on a similar mission to regenerate white oak. He hopes to have a controlled burn on his property in 2022 in conjunction with the Wayne National Forest, which borders his land on two sides. With help from EQIP in 2016, Farley removed red maple and other shade-tolerant trees from the midstory and understory of an aging white oak stand. Once he sees established white oak regeneration on those acres, he says he likely will perform a shelterwood harvest, removing about 80% of the old oak trees so the seedlings can get enough sunlight. “There’s a lot of pressure on our remaining white oak,” Farley says, “and we want to grow as much of it as possible so we can have it both for wildlife and economic purposes.”

In both cases, White Oak Initiative partners worked closely with these landowners and took careful notes to help other forest owners to better manage their lands. By helping them connect with foresters and to access resources such as EQIP, the White Oak Initiative is seeking to empower forest owners to take action.

Note: Partly adapted from an article written by Nick Fortuna for the summer 2020 Woodland magazine.