Charles A. Segelquist

Four cultural treatments were tested at 2 spacings (3.0 x 3.0 m and 3.0 x 1.5 m) for effects on growth and survival of planted honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) and invasion by native vegetation. Treatments were: mowing, and overseedings ofvelvetgrass (Holcus lanatus), Korean lespedeza (Lespedeza stipulacea), or a combination of fescue (Festuca arundinacea) and ladino clover (Trifolium repens). Nurse crops and mowing reduced invasion by native vegetation but also reduced honeysuckle production. Invasion of native vegetation on control plots did not prevent eventual honeysuckle establishment...

When birds were censused in pine and pine-hardwood stands of different heights to determine the effects of stand structure on winter bird populations, the shortest stands generally had more birds than taller stands. The pine sapling stand was lower than all other stands in bird population characteristics. Pine-hardwood stands were generally similar to pine stands in number of species, but higher in species diversity, and lower in bird density than pine stands of comparable height.

Honeysuckle planted in 1968 consistently yielded more than 2,000kg of leaves and twigs per ha after 1972. Fertilization with N substantially increased total vegetative yields and crude protein content of leaves. Utilization by deer was highest when acorns were scarce and when snow covered the ground. Despite high yields, there was evidence than an effective means of weed control would be necessary to prevent native woody species from eventually suppressing the honeysuckle. Mowing was not sufficient control, and spraying with 2,4,5-T killed honeysuckle as well as native woody species.

A 675-acre Arkansas Ozark enclosure had a carrying capacity of about one deer per 50 to 70 acres. When available, mast provided most of the deer's winter diet, but when mast yields were low winter food supplies became critical. The lungs of all deer examined were heavily infested by protostrongylid larvae. The poor quality of winter range plus the high level of parasitism appeared to be regulating deer numbers.

In the spring of 1968 Japanese honeysuckle was planted on four wildlife food plots in the Arkansas Ozarks. Two years later, with moderate fertilization and occasional mowing, this evergreen species produced 239 ovendry pounds of winter forage per acre, 12 times more than the surrounding forest. The nutrient quality of leaves was consistently high throughout the year. Leaves retained through the winter contained about 14 percent crude protein, more than eastern redcedar, flowering dogwood twigs, panic grasses, and pussytoes, the most common native forages eaten by deer during the winter....