In forests affected by heavy fires and continuous grazing of exotic herbivorous mammal species, Nothofagus pumilio (lenga) cannot recover naturally. The main factors that hinder the natural recovery of these forests and the feasibility of native tree plantations are the exotic herbivorous pressure, like that produced by Lepus europaeus (European hare), and the environment degradation degree by anthropic disturbances. The objective of this study was to evaluate different plantation efforts to recover N. pumilio forests degraded by fires in Chilean Patagonia. The plantation actions also included wire fences for sapling protection in 100 ha, where 60 ha were established during autumn (May 2012), and 40 ha were established during spring (October 2012). In March 2013 we recorded the height annual growth (cm year⁻¹), the section browsed at each sapling, the modification of plant form (number of new branches), and the vigor expression. We evaluated the data using one- and two-way ANOVAs, Cohen’s d effect size, and chi-square analyses. We measured a total of 872 plants, where 42% presented damages caused by European hare browsing. These results indicated that the wire fences were not completely useful to stop the damage on saplings (Cohen’s d effect size = < 0.2). We also found that autumn plantations were more susceptible to damage than those established during spring. European hares predominantly browsed on a particular sapling section: the apical buds. As a consequence, the browsed saplings had lower height growth than undamaged ones. These outputs highlight the need to explore and implement alternative actions for the rehabilitation of these degraded deciduous forests, to achieve the objectives of sustainable management or to recover the natural ecosystem functions.

在受大火和外来食草哺乳动物物种持续放牧影响的森林中，Nothofagus pumilio (lenga) 无法自然恢复。阻碍这些森林自然恢复和本地林木种植可行性的主要因素是外来食草压力，如欧洲野兔（Lepus europaeus）产生的压力，以及人为干扰造成的环境退化程度。本研究的目的是评估不同的种植园努力以恢复N. pumilio智利巴塔哥尼亚的森林因火灾而退化。种植园行动还包括 100 公顷的铁丝网保护树苗，其中 60 公顷在秋季（2012 年 5 月）建立，40 公顷在春季（2012 年 10 月）建立。2013 年 3 月，我们记录了高度年增长（cm 年^-1）、每个树苗浏览的截面、植物形态的变化（新枝数）和活力表达。我们使用单因素和双因素方差分析、Cohen's d效应大小和卡方分析来评估数据。我们共测量了 872 株植物，其中 42% 的植物是由于欧洲野兔浏览造成的损害。这些结果表明，铁丝网对于阻止对树苗的损害并不完全有用（Cohen's d效果大小 = < 0.2)。我们还发现秋季种植园比春季种植园更容易受到损害。欧洲野兔主要在特定的树苗部分浏览：顶端芽。因此，浏览过的树苗的高度增长低于未损坏的树苗。这些产出强调需要探索和实施替代行动来恢复这些退化的落叶林，以实现可持续管理的目标或恢复自然生态系统功能。