Slash Walls: Protecting Forests Seedlings

The photo here may look like a landscape art installation, but it’s actually an innovative new forestry practice called a slash wall.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Forester Dan Shaffer led the construction of the slash wall in Bush Hill State Forest, Cattaraugus  County, in cooperation with Forest Director Peter Smallidge and Forest Manager Brett Chedzoy from Cornell University’s Arnot Teaching and Research Forest.

A slash wall uses repurposed low-value logs and treetops to build a wall to keep tree seedlings and other plants safe from hungry whitetail deer. High populations of deer can damage a forest’s health by excessively eating young trees and other native plants, called overbrowse.

Since deer prefer certain plants and avoid others, their eating patterns can alter the makeup of a forest. Overbrowse decreases biodiversity, reduces native plant cover on the forest floor, and hinders forests’ ability to regenerate.

By temporarily encircling vulnerable forests, slash walls keep deer out, allowing plants to safely grow within a protected area. Since slash walls are built from unusable logs and branches left over from logging, called “slash,” they decompose naturally over time and are a cheaper alternative to traditional deer fencing.

The slash wall at Bush Hill State Forest was constructed from material left over from sugar maple logging.

While the practice of building slash walls is relatively new, studies at the Arnot Teaching and Research Forest indicate that slash walls are a promising strategy for preventing deer overbrowse.

Experimental slash walls at Arnot Forest have helped seedlings inside the walls grow at a faster rate than those outside.

In the 3,278-acre Bush Hill State Forest, DEC staff is working with Audubon New York Senior Forest Program Manager, Suzanne Treyger, to conduct annual breeding bird surveys within the slash wall.

These surveys are expected to help assess the slash wall’s potential for promoting bird species diversity in the protected young forest.

For more information on slash walls, visit Cornell University’s Slash Wall Resource Center.

The Bush Hill State Forest slash wall project was funded by the Environmental Protection Fund.

Photos of slash wall in Bush Hill State Forest provided by DEC.