from aspen and red raspberry, and exacerbated by strong competition from graminoids and raspberry. Cone shelters (Cerkon™) usually produced greater survival than unsheltered seeding on scarified seedspots in trials of direct seeding techniques in interior Alaska, and funnel shelters (Cerbel™) usually produced greater survival than unsheltered seeding on non-scarified seedspots. Both shelter types are manufactured by AB Cerbo in Trollhättan, Sweden. Both are made of light-degradable, white, opaque plastic, and are 8 cm high when installed. White spruce seed was sown in Alaska on a burned site in summer 1984, and protected by white plastic cones on small spots scarified by hand, or by white funnels placed directly into the residual ash and organic material. A group of six ravens (Corvus corax) was observed in the area about one week after sowing was completed in mid-June. Damage averaged 68% with cones and 50% with funnels on an upland area, and 26% with funnels on a floodplain area. Damage by ravens was only 0.13% on unburned but otherwise similar areas. In seeding trials in Manitoba between 1960 and 1966 aimed at converting aspen stands to spruce–aspen mixedwoods, 1961 scarification in the Duck Mountain Provincial Forest remained receptive to natural seeding for many years. Shelterwood In general terms, the shelterwood system is a series of partial cuts that removes the trees of an existing stand over several years and eventually culminates in a final cut that creates a new even-aged stand. It is an even-aged regeneration method that removes trees in a series of three harvests: 1) Preparatory cut; 2) Establishment cut; and 3) Removal cut. The success of practising a shelterwood system is closely related to: 1. the length of the regeneration period, i.e. the time from the shelterwood cutting to the date when a new generation of trees has been established; 2.the quality of the new tree stand with respect to stand density and growth; and 3.the value increment of the shelter trees. Information on the establishment, survival and growth of seedlings influenced by the cover of shelter trees, as well as on the growth of these trees, is needed as a basis for modelling the economic return of practising a shelterwood system. The method's objective is to establish new forest reproduction under the shelter of the retained trees. Unlike the seed-tree method, residual trees alter understory environmental conditions (i.e. sunlight, temperature, and moisture) that influence tree seedling growth. This