Project Description: The goal of this project is to continue a vegetation monitoring program within a 5 hectare deer exclosure and adjacent control area that was established in 2007 to evaluate the species composition of the forest in the Jockey Hollow Area at Morristown Historical Park (MORR) between areas that are affected by deer browse and areas where deer have been excluded.
This project will resample vegetation monitoring plots established in 2007 to better understand the effects of deer browsing and invasive plants as a forest health demonstration project. Data analysis will determine whether vegetation protected from deer browsing allow for greater numbers of native seedling growth as well as less invasive species coverage. Analyzing the changes in the exclosure over the past fourteen years will lead to a greater understanding of native plant regeneration and growth in the park and will inform native plant management.
The outcome of this project will be a final peer-reviewed report that will provide park managers with science-based, quantitative data regarding the condition of forest regeneration and the spread of invasive exotics plant species. The findings will greatly inform implementation strategies for the 2018 Vegetation and Deer Management Plan where much of the focus is on encouraging native tree and plant regeneration. This exclosure survey, located in an oak-beech forest, will help to provide insight pertaining to oak regeneration potential and strategies the current range of the northeast interior dry-mesic oak-hickory forest (West Virginia to Rhode Island).
Lead Principal Investigator: Steven Handel, Rutgers University
Partner Institution: Rutgers University
Federal Agency: National Park Service
Federal Agency Technical Contact: Robert Masson
Project Type: Research
Project Discipline: Natural Resources
Project Sub-Discipline: Biological (Ecology, Fish, Wildlife, Vegetation, T&E)
Start Year: 2021
End Year: 2023
Initial Funding Amount: $14,000.00
Federal Grant Number: P21AC11296
Amendments
- Amendment Number: 01, Year: 2022, Amount: $11,000.00
- Amendment Number: , Year: , Amount: $
Location: Morristown National Historical Park
National Park or Protected Area: Morristown (NPS)
State(s): New Jersey
Products Associated with this Project:
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