Introduction: Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) browsing pressure on vegetative regeneration of Turkey oak (Quercus cerris) and chestnut (Castanea sativa) and roe deer use of coppiced areas were investigated. Methods: In the Apennines, Central Italy, six experimental areas were chosen, where fenced (ungulate access excluded, protected P) and non-fenced (ungulate influence present, non-protected NP) plots were established after coppicing. From 2002 to 2005, each plot was surveyed twice a year, and number, biomass, collar diameter, and total height of the sprouts were measured. Results:Roe deer had a different effect on the re-growth of Turkey oak and chestnut sprouts. After 4 years, chestnut did not show any browsing-related damage, while in Turkey oak, biomass and height of the sprouts in fenced plots significantly differed from those in non-fenced plots. The results agreed with an experimental browsing index. The outcome is relevant because it represents a quick and reliable field tool to assess the impact on a larger scale, where analytic and quantitative approaches cannot be applied. The locations of 62 adult radiocollared roe deer confirmed an increase in the use of coppiced areas. A utilisation index showed more frequent use of these areas during and after forest work. Contrary to common opinion, logging seemed to attract roe deer in coppiced areas as the vegetation biomass at their disposal increased. © INRA and Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011.

A spatially explicit knowledge of forest resources is essential to support the sustainable use of wood as a fuel for producing energy (firewood).This paper describes the integrated use of remotely sensed data and sample based forest inventories to derive a biomass map for coppice forest, resulted estimated potential biomass available is contrasted with local domestic consumptions at the municipality level. The test was carried out in an environmentally and socially homogeneous district of Apennine Mountains (Alto Molise, south-central Italy) coupling multispectral high resolution Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite imagery and a local forest inventory trough the application of the non-parametric estimation procedure k-Nearest Neighbours (k-NN). Several forest management scenarios were applied in order to evaluate their impact on the potential availability of firewood from coppice forests.The paper introduces data and methods used and presents the achieved results both in terms of the accuracy of the biomass map produced by k-NN and of the relationship between the potential availability and demand for firewood.These results demonstrated that k-NN is able to estimate the biomass of coppice forest in the test area with an accuracy level comparable with recent similar application of k-NN carried out in Boreal regions (RMSE of 25.6%).The application of different forest management scenarios have a significant impact on local estimated firewood balance between potential supply from coppice forests and demand for domestic consumption, depending of the scenarios the net balance changed up to 84%. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.