yes wild black cherries are edible, I eat them all the time. Lot of pit for a little fruit.
Black cherry is intolerant of shade.
Oaks need sunlight to regenerate. White oaks more than red oaks.


I value Whites oaks over Black Cherry so I would thin the Cherries around the Oaks giving the oaks as much light as possible and room to grow.
Cherry grows fast and will re-sprout vigorously if cut or broken off. That might be why you see them in clumps.
Normally they don't grow in clumps.

There is also Pin Cherry which is smaller has smooth bark like young Black Cherry and tends to be more of a small tree or large shrub. They tend to grow in thickets.
You might be messing with them.

Cherry are stump sprouters like soft maple.

One thing I learned this year when I had the forester at my property is that it's common for black cherry to have some sort of a fungus knob on them. But it doesn't seem to kill the tree

Called black knot.

Wild black cherries are definitely edible

White Oak Acotns are like candy to deer. Watch them in the fall. They will walk right by a Red Oak and head for the White Oaks.

I cut out all of my Black Cherry trees and made Cabinet Boards out of them. I have Horses and the leaves and Berries are toxic to them. Didn't really matter up on top of the Mountain behind the haouse because the Bears had rode the tops completely out. The Tops were all on the ground. They must love those Cherries. You should have seen the crap piles. Runny and everywhere.

So the cherries are edible for humans but toxic to horses according to this thread

Ok, thanks.

I’d love lots of black cherry on my property. Red foxes basically live on them in late summer.

That's one thing I haven't noticed is an increase in red fox.
I don't think they drop their fruit in the summer around here but I could be wrong

I wish something would benefit from the black cherries I have though

I saw a nursery selling black cherry. They grow like a weed for me

When the wild cherries hit down here deer really eat them. They like acorns more but do like the cherries. I remember several years ago reading of a lot of foals dying (still born) in a portion of Ky. I believe they found that when the pregnant mares ate WILTED wild cherry leaves, the leaves produced a small amount of arsenic. It was enough to disrupt the horses pregnancies. I believe it was where they raise a lot of thorough breds, $$$$$.
Our wild cherries don't seem to hit as often as they used to. There are still good stands of them around here. Tall and straight as gun barrels. Used to be good money trees.

I think it's usually during a drought that plants and trees tend to get toxic to farm animals. It's the plant's way of keeping themselves from being grazed to death. I know I just oversimplified but forgive me anyway.

I don't ever really seem to notice fruit on my black cherry trees but maybe I'm just not looking close enough

I've been noticing the caterpillar nests on some of my black cherry trees. I think they're tent caterpillars. It's an annual thing.