What happened to the days when regenerating sugar maple was easy as falling off a log? Unfortunately, foresters from across the range of northern hardwoods are frequently experiencing a dearth of well-established sugar maple seedlings, not to mention seedlings of other prized species such as yellow birch and basswood. What is going on? Is it deer, interfering vegetation, earthworms, our silvicultural systems? In this episode of SilviCast we explore the challenges of naturally regenerating northern hardwoods with Mike Walters, Professor of Forest Ecology at Michigan State University and principle investigator on what has been dubbed “the big northern hardwood study.”