Research, Studies, and Forest Science.
Below are our resources for interested Ecologists, Legal Professionals, Academics, and anyone else interested in the depths of forest ecology
National Forest Map Databases. Here are a selection of FSVEG system maps for National Forests. These are rough stand/compartment level maps. Disclaimer: Accuracy cannot be guaranteed. In kmz and shapefile formats.
National Forests in Mississippi FSVEG
Land Between the Lakes National Wildlife Refuge FSVEG
Cherokee National Forest FSVEG
Shawnee National Forest FSVEG
Forest Ecology. There's heated debates on what our forests "should be", as they've been pretty badly altered over the last few centuries. This debate results in changing fads and philosophies towards forest management.
“Forest-clearing to create early-successional habitats: Questionable benefits, significant costs.” Michael J. Kellett, Joan E. Maloof, et al. “ Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. January 9, 2023
"Repeated application of fuel reduction techniques in the southern Appalachian mountains, USA. Implications for achieving management goals. " Waldrop, T.A., Hagan, D.L., and Simon, D. (2016). Fire Ecology 12(2): 28-47. Results of a continuous 13 year project to restore grassy oak woodland with a mix of fire and mechanical treatments have not yielded results.
"The vascular flora of an old-growth mixed mesophytic forest." McEwan et al. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 132(4), 2005, pp. 618-627. Inventoried 263 species of flora, with only one being non-native, an example of the important function of old growth structure being resilient to invasive species.
"Trends in the Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, and Calcium Content of the Leaves of Some Forest Trees in the Growing Season." H.L. Mitchell Black Roc Forest Papers. Volu.1, No. 6, July 1936. Hickory is renowned for calcium uptake in its leaves, increasing bioavailability.
"Characteristics of Old Growth Mixed Mesophytic Forests". Martin, William H. Natural Areas Journal. 1993.Volume 12. Describes typical habitats for mesic forests in the East.
"American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) modeling: Identifying Suitable Sites for Restoration in the Shenandoah National Park, Virginia". Santoro, Jennifer A. Master's Thesis, Duke University. 2013. Uses mapping of surviving chestnut colonies to identify viable restoration sites.
"External Characteristics of Old Trees in the Eastern Deciduous Forest". Pederson, Neil. Natural Areas Journal, 30(4):396-407. 2010. Natural Areas Association. Great primer on how to spot potential old growth, with representative pictures.
"Pre-Columbian Native American Use of Fire on Southern Appalachian Landscapes." Hazel R. Delcourt and Paul A. Delcourt. Conservation Biology, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Aug., 1997), pp. 1010-1014. Blackwell Publishing for Society for Conservation Biology. One of the studies that form the current "fire-oak hypothesis". Uses pollen counts from a column of a peat bog in North Carolina.
"Reassessment of the Use of Fire as a Management Tool in Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America". Matlack, Glenn R. Conservation Biology, Volume 27, No. 5, 916–926. 2013. An analysis of some of the more cited research in the fire-oak hypothesis and their limitations.
"Multiple interacting ecosystem drivers: toward an encompassing hypothesis of oak forest dynamics across eastern North America". Ryan W. McEwan, James M. Dyer and Neil Pederson. Ecography 33: 113, 2010. Good analysis of how a convergence of factors in the 19th and 20th centuries has shaped and shifted forest composition, raising a number of problems with trying to determine what are "natural" forest conditions
."Refining the Oak-Fire Hypothesis for Management of Oak-Dominated Forests of the Eastern United States". May A. Arthur, Heather D. Alexander, Daniel C. Dey, Calhe J. Schweilzer, and David L. Loftis. Journal of Forestry. July/August 2012. Pro-fire paper that calls for foresters to rethink the fire-oak hypothesis' current emphasis on high frequency burns.
"Dynamics of an Anthropogenic Fire Regime." Guyette, R.P., R.M. Muzrka, AND D.C. Dey. Ecosystems 5:472-486.2002. Tree-ring study that models human effects of a Missouri Ozark forest.
"First-Year Effects of Shelterwood Cutting, Wildlife Thinning, and Prescribed Burning on Oak Regeneration and Competitors in Tennessee Oak-Hickory Forests".Jackson, Samuel W.; Buckley, David S. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS–71. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. pp. 231-237. 2004. Compared effects of four treatments on oak regeneration and competitors: Shelterwood cutting, wildlife thinning using herbicide, wildlife thinning using herbicide combined with prescribed burning, and prescribed burning with no overstory treatment, with mixed results.
"Species diversity and composition in old growth and second growth rich coves of the southern Appalachian Mountains". Jackson, Clay; Pitillo, Dan; Allen, Lee; Wentworth, Thomas R; Bullock, Bronson P; Loftis, David L. Castanea. 74(1): 27–38. March. 2009. Compares species diversity between old growth and second growth stands in a Southern Appalachian mountain cove.
"The Development of Old Growth Structural Characteristics in Second-Growth Forests of the Cumberland Plateau, Kentucky, U.S.A.". Robert James Scheff. Master's Thesis. Eastern Kentucky University. 2012. Excellent study from Kentucky Heartwood's own Jim Scheff that compares Cumberland Old Growth Characteristics with that of 140-160 and 70-90 year old second growth stands to find the key characteristics of emerging structures that help explain what "Old Growth Forests" are and the ecological role they play. The research finds canopy age, large diameter trees, course woody debris, large diameter snags, cavity trees, and uneven age distribution to be key factors.
"Higher subsoil carbon storage in species-rich than species-poor temperate forests. " Per-Marten Schleuß, Felix Heitkamp, Christoph Leuschner, Ann-Catrin Fender and Hermann F Jungkunst. Environmental Research Letters. 15 January 2014. Study showed that the carbon concentration per unit clay or fine silt in the subsoil was by 30–35% higher in mixed than monospecific stands indicating a significant species identity or species diversity effect on C stabilization. Underlying causes may be differences in fine root biomass and turnover, in leaf litter decomposition rate among the tree species, and/or species-specific rhizosphere effects on soil.
"Gradient Analysis of Vegetation" R. H. Whittaker. Biology Review. (1967), 49, pp. 207-264. Author analyzes moisture and slope gradients for tree species composition in the Smokies.
"On the difference in the net ecosystem exchange of CO2 between deciduous and evergreen forests in the southeastern United States." Kimberly A. Novick, A. Christopher Oishi, Eric J. Ward, Mario B.S. Sequiera , Jehn Yih Juang, and Paul C. Stoy. Global Change Biology (2015) 21, 827–842. The southeastern United States is experiencing a rapid regional increase in the ratio of pine to deciduous forest ecosystems at the same time it is experiencing changes in climate. This study is focused on exploring how these shifts will affect the carbon sink capacity of southeastern US forests, which we show here are among the strongest carbon sinks in the continental United States.
"Managing fire in the mesic deciduous forest when fire history is unknown: response to Stambaugh et al. " Matlack, GR. 2015. Conservation Biology, 29: 947-949. Formulating an Expanding-Gap Regeneration System for Quercus Dominated Stands. John Lhotka, University of Kentucky. Slideshow presentation on recent work with what is often called "irregular shelterwood" regeneration.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) Reports. Valuable research on federal lands management conducted for Congress. Often addresses the intersection of questionable forest management and economics.
Long- and Short-Term Improvements Could Reduce Maintenance Backlog and Enhance System SustainabilityGAO-13-618: Published: Jun 27, 2013. Publicly Released: Jun 27, 2013. The Forest Service has more miles of trail than it has been able to maintain, resulting in a persistent maintenance backlog with a range of negative effects. In fiscal year 2012, the agency reported that it accomplished at least some maintenance on about 37 percent of its 158,000 trail miles and that about one-quarter of its trail miles met the agency's standards. The Forest Service estimated the value of its trail maintenance backlog to be $314 million in fiscal year 2012, with an additional $210 million for annual maintenance, capital improvement, and operations. Trails not maintained to quality standards have a range of negative effects, such as inhibiting trail use and harming natural resources, and deferring maintenance can add to maintenance costs
Annual Costs of Forest Service's Timber Sales Program Are Not DeterminableGAO-01-1101R: Published: Sep 21, 2001. Publicly Released: Oct 23, 2001. GAO reviewed the Forest Services total costs associated with its timber sales program for fiscal years 1998 and 1999. Serious accounting and financial reporting deficiencies at the Forest Service during fiscal years 1998 and 1999 precluded GAO from making an accurate determination of the total federal costs for the timber sales program. These deficiencies made the Forest Service's cost information totally unreliable.
Forest Service Could Improve Efficiency of Field-Level Timber Sales Management by Maintaining More Detailed DataGAO-07-764: Published: Jun 27, 2007. Publicly Released: Jul 27, 2007. The Forest Service tracks the funds it spends to conduct timber sales--such as funds for personnel and equipment--in a way that does not provide the detailed data many field managers, such as district rangers and forest supervisors, say they need in order to properly manage these sales.
Economics studies
ENVIRONMENTALLY HARMFUL SUBSIDIES IN THE U.S. Issue #1: The federal logging program How damaging logging operations on federal public lands costs taxpayers nearly $2 billion each year. Center for Sustainable Economy, May 2019.
"Money-Losing Timber Sales: Tongass National Forest." Taxpayers for Common Sense. March 18, 2015. The USFS has a long history of mismanaging money in the Tongass, with an average loss to taxpayers of $21.7 million per year from 2008-2013. Ongoing timber sale planning could lock in taxpayer losses for many years to come.