Past Research

Can coppicing protect black walnut trees from deer?

The 4.3-acre Goodrich black walnut plantation was established in 1983/1984 for the purposes of managing for long-term nut & high-quality wood product production. Deer damage (browsing and antler rubbing) was prevalent on many trees during the first 10 years of growth. Bill Minter, Director of Land Management, initiated a study on “coppicing” in 1995 to determine if tree form and growth could be improved in the midst of heavy deer pressure.

Cutting back damaged young hardwood trees to the ground-line and then letting them re-sprout is called coppicing. This practice can be applied to trees that have suffered

physical damage that results in undesirable stem form. Due to its well-established root system and the ability of a young tree to re-sprout from its cut stump, it can regenerate quickly with multiple stems. After several years of growth, the most vigorous and well-formed stem is maintained and the remaining sprouts are removed.

Multiple stems discourage deer

The challenge to maintaining only one stem after the other sprouts are removed is that it is again susceptible to deer damage. For this study, each deer-damaged tree

was coppiced and the most vigorous and well-formed stem was selected after the sprouts were at least head-high in height. But the remaining stump sprouts were only partially cut back to chest-height. This reduced the light competition on the maintained sprout, but provided a physical impediment for deer to access and damage it with their antlers. Over the ensuing years of growth, these auxiliary coppice sprouts eventually died from the over-story shade. What remained was a larger, well-formed stem that was of a diameter that was no longer susceptible to deer damage.