Abstract
This study investigated the effects of salvage logging on deer browsing and the impact of browsing on vegetation in a windthrown conifer plantation forest. We compared browsing pressure among three treatments: “log”, fallen logs retained; “planted”, planting after salvaging; and “residual”, residual rows with coarse woody debris that emerged after establishing planting rows. Then, we established a deer enclosure fence for each treatment. The results showed that browsing pressure was highest in the “planted” site, followed by the “residual” and “log” sites. This suggests that deer avoided places where fallen logs were left and that the arrangement of logs influenced browsing. Assessing the impact of browsing on the vegetation, we found increased herbaceous species richness outside the fence at the “planted” site and decreased vegetation height and herbaceous species richness outside the fence at the “residual” site. We did not find an impact of browsing on the vegetation at the “log” site. These changes may have been caused by differences in the species composition, height, and coverage of the vegetation among the treatments, by deer browsing, which decreased the volume of dominant plants, and by seed dispersal by deer. It was suggested that deer browsing can be decreased by keeping large fallen logs, although the effects of deer browsing on the vegetation were complicated and should be subject to long-term monitoring.
