Plastic shelters were used to grow red oak seedlings on good-to-excellent Appalachian hardwood growing sites in north central West Virginia. Preliminary results indicate that shelters have the potential to stimulate development of red oak seedling height growth, especially if height growth continues once the seedling tops are above the 5-foot-tall shelters.

The third edition of The Ecology and Silviculture of Oaks is an updated and expanded edition that explores oak forests as responsive ecosystems. New chapters emphasize the importance of fire in sustaining and managing oak forests, the effects of a changing climate, and advanced artificial regeneration techniques. This new edition expands on silvicultural methods for restoring and sustaining oak woodlands and savannahs, and on management of ecosystem services, including wildlife habitat. It also incorporates new material on evaluating landscape-scale, and cumulative effects of management action compared with inaction. Nine of the fifteen chapters cover updated information on the geographic distribution of US oaks, oak regeneration dynamics, site productivity, stocking and stand development, even- and uneven-aged silvicultural methods, and growth and yield. This edition includes a new section with colour illustrations for improved visualization of complex relationships. This book is intended for forest and wildlife managers, ecologists, silviculturists, environmentalists, and students of those fields.

The purpose of this report is to review the scientific literature on red oak biology and silviculture as it pertains to the use of shelterwood systems in oak regeneration and management. Sections of the report describe oak ecophysiology and succession; growth characteristics; environmental requirements (light, water, nutrients, temperature) and response to stress (pests, competition); and oak regeneration ecology (acorn production and dispersal, seeding and germination requirements, artificial regeneration). The final section reviews oak management by shelterwood systems, including prescriptions for residual overstory, control of understory vegetation, stocking targets, and final overstory removal.