Spring 1999

Current Research: Center For Hardwood Research Initiated

The Southern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service has initiated the Center for Bottomland Hardwood Research in Stoneville. In doing so, they combined four research work units: Multiple-Resource Management of Southern Bottomland Hardwood and Wetland Forest Ecosystems, Stoneville; Management of Insect and Disease Pests in Southern Hardwood/Wetland Forest Ecosystems, Stoneville; Technology of Forest Tree Seed, Starkville and; Watershed Ecosystem Research for the Mid-South Upper Coastal Plain and Interior Highlands, Oxford. The Center is a team of 15 scientists studying bottomland hardwood and wetland forest ecosystems. The mission of the Center is to provide the scientific basis for sustainable management of southern bottomland hardwood and wetland forests and associated stream ecosystems. Scientists at the Center are organized into five teams; each team is assigned to a broad problem area, a grouping of related research problems. One or several scientists are responsible for designing and carrying out research studies that seek to solve problems or overcome limitations to our knowledge. The five problem areas are (1) Regeneration and Reproductive Biology; (2) Stand Management and Forest Health; (3) Threatened, Endangered and Sensitive Aquatic and Terrestrial Fauna; (4) Ecological Processes and Management Impacts and (5) Ecosystem Restoration.