Our Mission
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Our mission is to provide basic ecological understanding, management guidelines, and policy-relevant information to sustain forest ecosystems in an environment changing rapidly through the direct and interacting effects of changes in climate, air quality, deer impacts, fire regimes, invasive species, land use, and human values.
Our Research Areas
Our focus is on sustaining biological diversity, economic and ecological productivity, forest health and vitality, and contributions to carbon cycles. Much of our research is conducted in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and adjacent states in mixed oak, Allegheny hardwood, and northern hardwood forests, but our work has national and global implications.
Our research approach is to understand and manage: We develop basic ecological understanding through observational and manipulative studies, then develop guidelines that help policy makers and managers sustain these forests. We focus our research on sustaining forests in a changing environment on five broad problem areas:
- Sustaining Mixed Oak, Allegheny, and Northern Hardwood Forests
- Fire Behavior and Effects Research under the National Fire Plan
- Managing Forests Affected by Invasive Species
- Understanding, Predicting, and Managing the Impact of Climate Change on Forests
- Contributing to Stewardship through Long-term Research including Research Conducted on the Kane and Vinton Furnace Experimental Forests
Recent Publications
- Brose, Patrick ; Hille, Andrea 2020. Evaluating the applicability of the shelterwood-burn technique for regenerating the mixed-oak forests of the Allegheny National Forest. In: Pile, Lauren S.; Deal, Robert L.; Dey, Daniel C.; Gwaze, David; Kabrick, John M.; Palik, Brian J.; Schuler, Thomas M., comps. The 2019 National Silviculture Workshop: a focus on forest management-research partnerships. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-193. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 11-21.
- Quigley, Kathleen M.; Kolka, Randall ; Sturtevant, Brian R.; Dickinson, Matthew B.; Kern, Christel C.; Donner, Deahn M.; Miesel, Jessica R. 2020. Prescribed burn frequency, vegetation cover, and management legacies influence soil fertility: Implications for restoration of imperiled pine barrens habitat. Forest Ecology and Management
- Hiers, J. Kevin; O?Brien, Joseph J.; Varner, J. Morgan; Butler, Bret W.; Dickinson, Matthew ; Furman, James ; Gallagher, Michael ; Godwin, David ; Goodrick, Scott L.; Hood, Sharon M.; Hudak, Andrew ; Kobziar, Leda N.; Linn, Rodman ; Loudermilk, E. Louise; McCaffrey, Sarah ; Robertson, Kevin ; Rowell, Eric M.; Skowronski, Nicholas ; Watts, Adam C.; Yedinak, Kara M. 2020. Prescribed fire science: the case for a refined research agenda. Fire Ecology
- Hoover, Coeli ; Bush, Renate ; Palmer, Marin ; Treasure, Emrys 2020. Using Forest Inventory and Analysis Data to Support National Forest Management: Regional Case Studies. Journal of Forestry
- Champagne, Emilie ; Royo, Alejandro A.; Tremblay, Jean-Pierre ; Raymond, Patricia 2019. Phytochemicals Involved in Plant Resistance to Leporids and Cervids: a Systematic Review. Journal of Chemical Ecology
Last Modified: 11/08/2019
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