An oak forest is a plant community with a tree canopy dominated by oaks (Quercus spp.). In terms of canopy closure, oak forests contain the most closed canopy, compared to oak savannas and oak woodlands.[1]
Oak forests are categorized as deciduous forests which commonly have dense canopy cover (~70%) on dry soils with large amounts of undecomposed oak leaves over the ground.[2] The forests are commonly found around the Appalachian Mountains and neighboring areas in the Midwest United States.[3] Soils within the forests are highly acidic and dry with habitats existing in low elevation areas as well as large mountainsides, providing resources and an ecosystem for large amounts of common plant and animal species in those regions. Indicated by the large presence of oaks (Quercus spp.), the community is also dominated by inflammable shrubs and different vegetation commonly seen in oak savannas and oak woodlands.[4] This plant life is often credited with assisting in maintaining air, soil, and water quality as well as playing a major role in biodiversity of different state regions.
Oak forests are susceptible to a shift in the tree demography, with greater abundances of shade-tolerant and fire-sensitive species, such as red maple (Acer rubrum), sugar maple (A. saccharum), American beech (Fagus grandifolia) and hickory (Carya spp.).[5] This leads to a lack of oak seedings and saplings to grow and replace mature oaks (Quercus spp.) once they die and growth in abundance of new species. Deer browse is also a large threat to the plant community as white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) use oak seedlings for consumption at growing rates with increasing population sizes.[6]
To combat this, the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve attempted controlled fires to burn off leaf litter of competing non-oaks without harming mature trees to encourage oak seed growth. Only the site of Backus Mountain showed positive effects of the controlled burns as oak seedlings grew in amount and maple seedlings reduced while all other sites found decreases in oak seeds. Deer browse is also combatted by the organization with tall deer fences being installed in 10-acre sections of oak forests, promoting the growth of tall oak seedlings regularly and is now encourage by the National Park Service to forest managers having to handle similar issues.