North Central Research Station

About the Central Hardwood Unit

The region is also home to some of the largest river systems in the United States: the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Ohio, the Wabash, and the Illinois. As a result, bottomland or floodplain forests are also found in the region, but their extent has been greatly reduced from historic levels.

Through most of the 20th century the amount of forest in the region declined due to clearing for agriculture and urban expansion. But there are now indications that this decline has leveled off and is reversing in some parts of the region. The increase in forestland is primarily the result of farmland and pasture reverting to forest. In addition, Central Hardwood Forests are becoming older and shifting to shade-tolerant species such as maple and beech. The region includes some of the most fragmented forest in eastern North America as well as some of the most heavily forested landscapes. It also includes important agricultural areas and large urban centers, and as a result, forest fragmentation has become a pervasive conservation issue.

This setting has resulted in several important natural resource conservation issues. The region is an important forest area for wood and other forest products, water, wildlife, and recreation. Contemporary concerns include the ability of the region to sustain increasing demands for wood production and recreation by a growing urban population. Sustainable production cannot be assumed because changes in land use pattern and demands for preserving nontimber values on public lands can result in fewer managed lands available for resource outputs. Viability of wildlife sensitive to fragmentation and forest management (neotropical migratory birds, amphibians, and forest bats) is a serious concern. Alteration of ecosystem and landscape processes such as disturbance regimes is a concern because of their effect on landscape and ecosystem composition and structure. Land management planning is often a contentious process because of the diverse benefits expected from forests and the perceived incompatibility of many of these uses.

The research work unit was initially formed in 1988 to take an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to research problems in the Central Hardwood Forest. The unit focused on this region because it is ecologically defined and has a common set of research problems that require a multidisciplinary approach, it is an important forest region, and it is geographically compatible with the scope of the Station's research. While the research problems defined here have changed some, the multidisciplinary focus on the Central Hardwood Forest is still appropriate. The Station is focusing research in three integrated program areas: Sustaining Riparian Landscapes; Forest Productivity; and Changing Midwestern Landscapes.