Scarlet oak is less resistant to basal injury than black oak, white oak, or chestnut oak.
Scarlet oak is often severely wounded even when the area of discolored bark is comparatively small. Acorns buried in the soil by animals may survive, although documentation of this possibility with respect to scarlet oak was not found in the literature. Scarlet oak individuals, including seedlings, sprout from the root crown when top-killed. Individuals that survive fire often have basal fire wounds. Fire-wounded scarlet oaks sometime suffer a reduction in the rate of diameter growth.