Title: Growth of Appalachian hardwoods kept free to grow from 2 to 12 years after clearcutting
Abstract: Free-to-grow sapling-size, yellowpoplars of seedling origin outgrew similar black cherry and red oak in both dbh and total height (especially on good sites).Yellow-poplar consistently grew faster in dbh throughout the study, particularly on the better oak sites.Black cherry had an edge over yellow-poplar in total height during the early years of the study, but yellow-poplar began to outgrow black cherry about 5 and 10 years after ciearcutting on the good and fair sites, respectively.Sugar maple did not respond to the annual release treatment.With the annual release techniques used in this study, free-to-grow yellow-poplar grew faster than black cherry in height and dbh, with red oak a distant third during the first 10 to 12 years after clearcutting; however, red oak is more competitive with these intolerants on fairer sites.