Welcome to the Southern Research Station

The Southern Research Station, with headquarters located in western North Carolina, is the leading organization for research on natural resource management and sustainability in the Southern United States. With a staff of 130 scientists serving 13 Southern States, our mission is to create the science and technology needed to sustain and enhance Southern forest ecosystems and the benefits they provide. (more...)

Message from the Director...

Audio Wecome (mp3)

Hello and welcome to the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station!

I’m Jim Reaves, Station Director, and I want to thank you for visiting the Station’s Web site.

The Southern Research Station is proud of the cutting-edge research being conducted by our 130 scientists, who are working hard to understand and address the current and emerging natural resource issues facing the South’s forests today.

Our mission is to create the science and technology needed to sustain and enhance southern forest ecosystems and the benefits they provide.

I invite you to learn more about the research of our award-winning scientists, who are recognized as world leaders in forest research and monitoring.

They are working with other Forest Service staff, universities, NGOs, state foresters and other government agencies, landowners, and many others to conduct sound science that helps ensure the health of our forest ecosystems in the future.

Two-thousand and nine is going to be an exciting and productive year for the Station. (more....)

Southern Research Station Science Areas
	Forest Threats provides the knowledge and tools required to predict and avert or mitigate the impacts of forest health threats.
	Forest Values considers natural resources and humans inextricably linked in the South. These linkages will only strengthen as increased urbanization, globalization, and shifting values influence and alter how people interact with forests.
	Forest Inventory and Monitoring quantifies and monitors the condition of natural resources in the South. It is critical for determining ecosystem responses to forest health threats and improvements in natural resource condition resulting from management activities.
	Forest Restoration and Management creates and improves tools and technologies that are needed to successfully restore and manage ecosystems in this changing environment.
	Forest Watershed Science provides the knowledge and tools required to manage the full range of forest water resources in a dynamic and complex landscape.

Invasive of the Month: English Ivy (Hedera helix L.)

Plant. Evergreen woody vine climbing to 90 feet (28 m) by clinging aerial roots and trailing to form dense ground cover. Thick dark-green leaves with whitish veins and three to five pointed lobes when juvenile. Maturing at about 10 years into erect plants or branches with unlobed leaves and terminal flower clusters that yield purplish berries. Toxic to humans when eaten and triggering dermatitis in sensitive individuals.

Stem. Woody slender vines when a ground cover and growing to 10 inches (25 cm) in diameter when climbing infested trees and rocks by many fine to stout aerial rootlets. Vines pale green (sometimes reddish tinged), rooting at nodes, becoming covered with gray-brown shiny bark, segmented by encircling and raised leaf scars, and roughened by tiny ridges. Bark light gray to brown, bumpy and gnarly, with aerial rootlets developing along the side where clinging to vertical structures. Aerial rootlets exuding a gluelike substance. Older vines sometimes grown together where crossed...(More)

Recent Publications Added To Our Website

We have 26,486 publications online that you can view and print.

• Effect of thermo-mechanical refining pressure on the properties of wood fibers as measured by nanoindentation and atomic force microscopy
• Thermosets as compatibilizers at the isotactic polypropylene film and thermomechanical pulp fiber interphase
• Biosorbents prepared from wood particles treated with anionic polymer and iron salt: Effect of particle size on phosphate adsorption
• Base-treated juniper fiber media for removing heavy metals in stormwater runoff
• Quantum chemical determination of youngÂ’s modulus of lignin. Calculations on ß-O-4' model compound
• Melamine-modified urea formaldehyde resin for bonding particleboards
• The response of sap flow to pulses of rain in a temperate Australian woodland