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 Welcome (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 |
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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: Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus)
Tree-of-heaven or ailanthus (Ailanthus altissima) is a deciduous tree that grows up to 80 feet tall with long pinnately compound leaves, gray slightly fissured bark, and large terminal clusters of greenish flowers in early summer. Flowers and other parts of the plant have a strong odor. Tree-of-heaven sprouts have been found to grow 10 to 14 feet and seedlings 3 to 6 feet tall in the first year, with vigorous growth continuing for 4 or more years. Nonnative trees such as tree-of heaven hinder reforestation and management of right-of-ways and natural areas, as well as dramatically altering habitats. Read more about this plant and specific methods to control it.
Synonyms: ailanthus, Chinese sumac, stinking sumac, paradise-tree, copal-tree
Plant. Deciduous tree to 80 feet in height and 6 feet in diameter, with long pinnately compound leaves and circular glands under lobes on leaflet bases. Strong odor from flowers and other parts, sometimes likened to peanuts or cashews...(More)
Recent Publications Added To Our Website
We have 28,247 publications online that you can view and print.- Comparative gas-exchange in leaves of intact and clipped, natural and planted cherybark oak (Quercus pagoda Raf.) seedlings
- Ethanol and (-)-α-pinene: attratant kairomones for bark ad ambrosia beetles in the Southeastern US
- Landscape patterns from mathematical morphology on maps with contagion
- Macrohabitat factors affect day roost selection by eastern red bats and eastern pipstrelles in the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA
- Relationship between urbanization and bat community structure in national parks of the southeastern U.S.
- Biological field stations: research legacies and sites for serendipity
- Adapting to climate change in United States national forests