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Traditional silvicultural systems such as clearcutting and single-tree selection cutting are critiqued for their tendency to simplify forest complexity. By more closely emulating natural disturbance regimes and increasing the availability and heterogeneity in understory light levels, we pose that systems causing intermediate disturbances such as the single-tree and small group selection cutting system can promote tree regeneration, retain stand structural attributes, and maintain high understory plant diversity in temperate mixedwood stands. To assess this, we implemented a harvest intensity gradient experiment (residual basal area [BA], % removal) consisting of uncut control (26 m²/ha, 0%), light (21 m²/ha, 20%), moderate (18 m²/ha, 31%) and heavy (15 m²/ha, 42%) cutting with retention of legacy trees in uneven-aged yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britton) – conifer stands. We evaluated the effects on gap …