The effects of removing the understory trees and debris in a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) grove on the summer forage available to mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus californicus) were studied. On areas treated by cutting, piling, and burning, the browse and other forage was more abundant, more closely utilized, and more nutritious than on untreated control areas. The vegetational responses to the forest treatment reflected the increased sunlight and openness of the canopy. This study is part of a project designed to recreate primitive-like conditions in a grove of giant sequoia. The forest cover is treated to reduce fire hazards, to remove competing shade-tolerant trees, to open visttas of the majestic giant sequoia, and to improve the habitat for wildlife. The purpose of the research reported here was to deterrnine the effects of such treatment on the browse and other forage available to mule deer, which use the grove in summer for feeding, cover, and fawning. The problem of learning the optimal conditions for deer habitat in the heavily forested western slope of the Sierra Nevada has been aptly described by Leopold et al. ( 1963:34): When the forty-niners poured over the Sierra Nevada into California, those iat kept diaries spoke almost to a man of the wide-spaced oolumns of mature trees grew on the lower western slope in gigantic magnificence. The ground was a grass parkland, in springtime carpeted with wildflowers. Deer and bears were abundant. Today much of the west slope is a dog-hair thicket of young pines, white fir, incense cedar, and mature brush a direct function of over-protection from natural ground fires. AAIithin the four natibonal parks Lassen, Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon the thickets are even 1College teacher participant (National Science Foundation Grant ), University of CCalifornia, Berkeley. more impenetrable than elsewhere. Not only is this accumulation of fuel dangerous to the giant sequoias and other mature trees but the animal life is meager, wildflowers are sparse, and to some at least the vegetative tangle is depressing, not uplifting. Is it possible the primitive open forest oould be restored, at least on a local scale? And if so, how? Leopold et al. (1963:33) recommended that the biotic associations within each park be maintained, or where necessary recreated, as nearly as possible in the condition prevailed when the area was first visited by the white man. A national park should represent a vignette of primitive America.... Restoring the primitive scene is not done easily nor can it be done oompletely.... A reasonable illusion of primitive America could be recreated, using the utmost in skill, judgment, and ecologic