DOI: 10.7944/jvyv-6755
title: Dataset for: Webster Tract White-tailed deer browse management

description: This is one of three datasets at Balcones Canyonland National Wildlife Refuge studied.  This dataset represents Project 1.  Project 1 is to assess the long-term, combined effects of (a) prescribed thinning and burning and (b) deer browse management, on woodland composition and structure and on oak canopy recruitment. The Service will be substantially involved in this project and will be responsible for 1) providing data from treatments and surveys conducted in these plots between 2013 and 2021; 2) collaborate with the Recipient to finalize site-specific protocols by 30 June 2021; and 3) provide logistical support including assistance with study site access. The Recipient will 1) collaborate with Refuge staff to develop hypotheses and a protocol to assess composition, structure, and fuel characteristics in plots; 2) collect data in the plots according to the developed protocol; amd 3) analyze data using best statistical practices to quantify long-term treatment effects.


description: We conducted a long-term study in Ashe juniper (Juniperus ashei) -oak (Quercus spp.) woodlands at the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge on the eastern border of the Edwards Plateau in central Texas to test the interaction of thinning and prescribed fire, combined factorially with deer exclusion, on oak regeneration and overall woodland composition and structure. In 2010, we crossed a ‘burn’ treatment (thinning and prescribed fire) with a ‘fence’ treatment (deer exclusion). Twenty 11.0-m radius (0.038 ha) plots were established in 2009. The fence and burn treatments were implemented in 2010 in a split-plot design. Ten plots were enclosed within a 1.3-ha fence made of sturdy metal wire, 2.5-m tall, with approximately 15.5- x 15-cm gaps large enough to let squirrels and other small animals through. Ten plots, including five inside and five outside the fence, were then randomly selected as burn plots for a total of five plots per burn-fence treatment combination. Field data collection followed a modified FIREMON protocol. Mature trees and saplings were surveyed in the full 11.0-m radius plot, and seedlings were surveyed in a 3.57-m radius (0.004 ha) subplot around plot center. By 2012, independent Texas red oak saplings had not increased significantly in any treatment combination, but large oak sprouts from the base of mature trees had increased in plots that were both burned and fenced. We returned to these plots in 2021, following an 11-year fire-free interval, to assess the long-term effects of the treatments on canopy dynamics, oak sapling recruitment, and woodland structure. Eleven years after treatment implementation, we observed mature Texas red oak mortality in all plots, including control plots, suggesting that this species may be declining in the region. In contrast, we only observed notable oak regeneration, including large sprouts from mature trees and independent oak saplings, in plots that were both burned and fenced to exclude deer. We conclude that thinning and/or prescribed fires are necessary to increase oak regeneration, but that highly abundant white-tailed deer can limit their efficacy by excluding palatable species such as oaks during post-fire recovery.