Establishing Native Shade‐tolerant Perennials in Highly Degraded Woodlands (Iowa)

Abstract

Most of the remnant upland hardwood forests in the predominantly agricultural regions of the Midwest have been disturbed by human-related activities, especially cattle grazing, and many have understories that have been converted to non-native grasses and forbs (Whitney 1994). Due to the dearth of techniques for restoring native perennial species to these sites (but see ER19(3):172-174), I designed a study to 1) investigate methods for replacing an understory of exotics with native perennials that tolerate the shade or mixed sun and shade environments often found beneath the broken canopy of highly disturbed forested areas, and 2) identify cost-effective methods for establishing a basic native perennial understory within two years after sowing.