Salvaging has minimal impacts on vegetation regeneration 10 years after severe windthrow

•Windthrow salvaging had negligible impacts on vegetation regeneration structure.•Salvaging had minor positive effects on tree regeneration density and height.•Salvaging had no significant effect on nontree vegetation species diversity.•Salvaging considerably reduced the abundance of overstorey trees and deadwood.•Salvaging influenced soil bulk density, pH, and base cation concentrations.

Salvage harvesting is an important means of recovering wood fiber after disturbance, but remains controversial because it removes many unique biological legacies produced by natural disturbance. In this study, we assessed the effects of salvaging on the recovery of young forests approximately 10 years after severe windthrow in eastern Canada. Results showed that salvaging significantly reduced the abundance of residual overstorey trees from an average of 7.8 to 1.1 m2/ha and downed woody debris from 197 to 46 m3/ha, and altered forest soil attributes. However, we did not detect as clear an impact on regenerating vegetation. Although tree regeneration diversity was greater in salvaged stands (7.3 versus 5.6 species), the diversity and occurrence of all other nontree plant species did not significantly differ between treatments. Interestingly, mean tree seedling height was significantly higher in salvaged stands (1.5 versus 0.9 m), but saplings were taller in nonsalvaged stands (3.9 versus 3.2 m), largely due to the presence of advanced regeneration. Overall, salvaging had minimal effects on regenerating vegetation 10 years after windthrow and resulted in potential benefits, including increased mineralization of the forest floor, enhanced growth of seedlings, and improved access to conduct silviculture.