BSK
Well-Known Member
Habitat managers always talk about the natural seed bank - what seed is already present in the ground but isn't allowed to germinate under a full tree canopy, but will germinate if sunlight is allowed to reach the ground through timber thinning. What is in that seed bank will probably surprise you. It always surprises me! After having 100 acres heavily cut (down to around 10" DBH), those areas are rapidly filling in with a MASSIVE amount of pokeweed and ragweed, two very good natural food sources for deer. But where in the heck did all that pokeweed seed come from? Yes, we have it here in there around the edges of openings and along powerline right-of-ways, but now I've got about 100 acres of pokeweed! How that much pokeweed seed was already in the soil boggles my mind...