Wildlife Tech Class of 2019
Ardsley High School
Mentor: Chris Nagy (MRG)
Project: Impacts of deer on red oak seedlings in a managed forest
Project Status: Ongoing
Project Description: Josh Amir (Ardsley High School) monitored red oak seedlings for two years, and, combined with data from 2015 and 2016, estimated survival rates for young trees in our forest. Josh noted high mortality due to white-tailed deer, something common to our whole region and a trend we expected. Interestingly, Josh also found high seedling mortality due to rodents and other small mammals in very young oak seedlings, indicating that these young trees face many dangers. Finding a way to encourage forest regeneration in the face of high deer and other herbivore populations is a major goal of MRG.