American hazelnut is a thicket-forming shrub with delicious edible nuts. It spreads via suckers from underground rhizomes, producing a large dense spreading shrub. Its masts feed pheasant, ruffed grouse, turkey, woodpeckers, squirrels, deer, foxes, and bobwhite, and its thickets provide nesting cover for many additional species. Because of this, many people use American hazelnut to attract wildlife to their property and as a source of food.