A comprehensive guide to effective hardwood forest management Extending 235,000 square miles from New York to Georgia and fromVirginia to Missouri, the Central Hardwoods Region harbors the mostextensive concentration of deciduous hardwoods in the world. Asharvests in the Pacific Northwest decline and timber prices rise,the maturing stands of mixed species in this central U.S. regionare a rich and valuable resource that is increasingly vulnerable toexploitation. This timely book examines all of the key ecological,social, and economic management considerations essential to utilizeand sustain these vital woodlands effectively. First, it develops the background necessary to understand whatmakes the hardwood eco-system function, with a thorough examinationof the physiography, geology, soils, and climate of the region anda historical overview of its evolution and development frompre-European settlement to the present. Then, species by species,the book details the silvical characteristics of 34 important treespecies. Next, it offers expert recommendations for effectiveforest treatment and management, from specific concerns such astimber production, pollution, and financial planning to broaderissues, including the role of the natural resource manager and thebiological potential of the entire region. Generously supplemented with graphs and photos, Ecology andManagement of Central Hardwood Forests is important reading forforesters, natural resource managers, regional planners,environmental scientists, governmental officials--everyone with astake in the future of this critical living resource.

This edited volume addresses a rising concern among natural resource scientists and management professionals about decline of the many plant and animal species associated with early-successional habitats, especially within the Central Hardwood Region of the USA. These open habitats, with herbaceous, shrub, or young forest cover, are disappearing as abandoned farmland, pastures, and cleared forest patches return to forest. There are many questions about “why, what, where, and how” to manage for early successional habitats. In this book, expert scientists and experienced land managers synthesize knowledge and original scientific work to address questions on such topics as wildlife, water, carbon sequestration, natural versus managed disturbance, future scenarios, and sustainable creation and management of early successional habitat in a landscape context.

This edited volume addresses a rising concern among natural resource scientists and management professionals about decline of the many plant and animal species associated with early-successional habitats, especially within the Central Hardwood Region of the USA. These open habitats, with herbaceous, shrub, or young forest cover, are disappearing as abandoned farmland, pastures, and cleared forest patches return to forest. There are many questions about “why, what, where, and how” to manage for early successional habitats. In this book, expert scientists and experienced land managers synthesize knowledge and original scientific work to address questions on such topics as wildlife, water, carbon sequestration, natural versus managed disturbance, future scenarios, and sustainable creation and management of early successional habitat in a landscape context.

This book discusses the historic range of variation (HRV) in the types, frequencies, severities and scales of natural disturbances, and explores how they create heterogeneous structure within upland hardwood forests of the Central Hardwood Region (CHR). The book was written in response to a 2012 forest planning rule which requires that national forests to be managed to sustain ‘ecological integrity’ and within the ‘natural range of variation’ of natural disturbances and vegetation structure. Synthesizing information on HRV of natural disturbance types, and their impacts on forest structure, has been identified as a top need.