Pros and cons of crown releases for acorn production

[Bucksnbows]

The property in Sparta, NJ I manage under a state approved Forestry Stewardship Management Plan is a mixed oak/hickory forest in the Highlands region. Our oaks in order of abundance on this property are: northern red, chestnut white, scarlet red, and white oak.  We never cut any of the white oaks other than the chestnut whites.  The whites are preferred food when acorns first drop in fall due to lower tannins than reds and I have done a lot of crown releases around them of non- white oaks to grow their crowns so they produce more acorns. That’s the upside…..

The downside is that it will take many years depending how crowded those trees were to grow out new branches and spread their crowns. During that time, all the tree’s energy goes to limb growth and not to acorn production. My mistake was doing this to nearly all my white oaks in the same year and that was a good 10 years ago now. Last fall was the first time I saw any acorns and it was a poor crop due to the drought. If I were to do it over, I would choose a new grove each year to work on rather than all at once.  And now my new problem is bears breaking lots of the newer branches by climbing the white oaks to devour any acorns before they fall to the ground on their own, but hopefully the Governor allows the hunt to get back to normal so we have a fall archery season once again.