Woodlot Management

Most woodlots or smaller forests in central Ohio need help. Old pasture and cropland are usually choked with honeysuckle, multi-flora rose, and a host of other invasive species. In younger forests you can find honey locust, ash, black cherry and hopefully other tree species making up the canopy. Deer are limiting what species are able to grow. There also aren't many bids.
Removing the big invasive species first is a huge step. After removing invasive shrubs you can see what was hidden by the tangled undergrowth. Depending on the site, I usually find ash, box elder, and hickory saplings. Sometimes a random spice bush and viburnums are present, always suppressed by the overgrowth of invasive species and deer browse. The forest floor is usually devoid of anything worth noting.
Once the invasive species are removed, then the deer are the deciding factor for what direction to take next. It is tempting to plant a variety of native trees and shrubs to enhance the sight's value, but it can end up being a waste of time and money. That being said, spicebush and paw paw are the two native plants I see deer avoid consistently. That may not be true for every site, though.
The continued management plan is to primarily keep invasive species from becoming a problem again. The deer will always be a problem, so there really is no sense trying to fight it. You have to find out what native plants existing on the sight are succeeding.

Invasive species undergrowth.

During invasive removal

Dense invasive species stumps

Further invasive removal

Pictures never do it justice, but you can still see that there is not much left after most of the invasive plants are removed.