ABSTRACT
But in one sense, starting with a clean slate (previous soybean field) may be easier than attempting to restore a degraded forest even though the hydrology may be present. Much of our remaining forest wetlands have been seriously degraded by past harvesting practices. Restoring the original bottomland hardwood forest must often go beyond simply restoring the appropriate hydrology. Similar to conditions in many upland forests, over the years cutting practices have removed the most valuable species and the most valuable individuals within species, frequently leaving a mixture of culls, edge, and early successional species. In many cases these rejects will inhibit regeneration of the original dominants for many years. Consequently, in addition to planting and/or seeding methods described in Chapter 13, developers may need to employ prescribed burning, felling, or injecting culls, herbicide applications, clear cutting, selective harvesting, and other forest management practices to restore the forested wetland.
