Search
Browse by Subject
Contact Information

Northern Research Station
One Gifford Pinchot Drive
Madison, WI 53726
(608) 231-9318
(608) 231-9544 TTY/TDD

You are here: NRS Home / Research Units / Sustainable Management of Central Hardwood Ecosystems and Landscapes
Sustainable Management of Central Hardwood Ecosystems and Landscapes

Our Mission

A landscape view of a central hardwoods forestThe Central Hardwood Region is one of the largest forested areas in the country, covering more than 220 million acres, located largely in the Midwest, southern Great Lakes, and western mid-Atlantic region.  It comprises a variety of forest ecosystems, most notably upland oak-hickory and oak-pine forests, oak and pine savannas, old-growth hardwood and pine forests, and bottomland hardwood forests along the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi Rivers. These ecosystems are habitats for many neotropical migrant birds (songbirds) and the threatened Indiana bat. 

Our Research Areas

  • Silviculture - Innovative silvicultural methods to produce composition and structure needed for conserving biodiversity and providing habitat, products, and other ecological services to benefit society.
  • Wildlife - Land managers, planners, and owners need information on how local and landscape factors affect the demographics and viability of selected wildlife species.
  • Landscape - Land managers, planners, and owners need new knowledge and new modeling tools to assess the effects of alternative land management practices and natural disturbances on a range of human and ecological benefits.

Where We Are

The Central Hardwoods Research Work Unit is located on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia and at the Sinkin Experimental Forest on the Mark Twain National Forest. It brings together a multidisciplinary team of natural resource professionals to examine the problems of its region at all levels, from the individual organism and species to the landscape level. These problems fall into three general categories---silviculture, wildlife, and landscape.

Recent Publications

Last Modified: 03/06/2012


Central Hardwoods
News

[image:] Sybill Amelon receives the 2013 Gifford Pinchot Award

Gifford Pinchot Excellence in Interpretation and Conservation Education Award Recipient, Sybill Amelon, with Project Leader, Dan Dey.

Sybill Amelon has conducted bat conservation education programs focused on the importance of bats to healthy ecosystems for more than 20,000 primary, secondary and college students and teachers, as well as community organizations in the US and at least 200 local conservation students throughout the Americas. 

Featured Publications

[image:] Book cover: Sustaining Young Forest Commmuniities - Ecology and Management of Early Successional Habitats in the Central Hardwood Region, USA

Sustaining Young Forest Commmuniities - Ecology and Management of Early Successional Habitats in the Central Hardwood Region, USA

 

Predicting fire frequency with chemistry and climate

 

[image:]

The ecology and silviculture of oaks: 2nd Edition.

Search Publications

You may search the entire NRS publications database by author, keyword, or title.