Cluster-planting for forest reclamation: more effectively deploying native plants and better emulating**regeneration dynamics

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Site conditions are the key driver for successful natural forest regeneration on disturbed industrial sites. Yet, in many cases, conditions are far from optimal, driving the need to supplement the recovery of sites with nursery stock seedlings. Our knowledge and best practices of woody plant establishment are founded on practices developed in the forest industry that optimize productivity of forest trees intended for merchantable harvest. However, reclamation operations and regulatory criteria are less focused on solely producing merchantable timber and instead focus more on whether a functional, resilient forest community is established. Establishing a forest that is adapted to the conditions found in natural forests may lead to faster site recovery and future resilience. This study will test an alternative approach to forest reclamation practices, which currently consist of planting tree seedlings uniformly across large areas. This alternative method is known as cluster planting, promotes the planting of clusters of tree seedlings across reclamation sites with the objective that the clusters function as nucleation points for the re-establishment of a forest. In this project we will examine the impacts of cluster-planting deciduous tree seedlings on the survival, growth of the planted seedlings as well as early-development of native vegetation within and surrounding tree seedling clusters.**