Search Results

This chapter has three primary objectives. First, it determines via literature review what is known of interaction among forest strata, with a specific focus on overstory-herbaceous layer interactions in eastern deciduous forests. It presents contrasting views of the nature of these interactions, from one that sees a quantifiable linkage among strata to one that sees little true interaction occurring. Second, it develops a mechanistic explanation for patterns of linkage in forest ecosystems, with emphasis on eastern deciduous forests. Finally, it examines data from two different forest types—a central Appalachian hardwood forest and a successional aspen forest of northern lower Michigan—for evidence supporting or refuting this explanation.

This chapter provides a synthesis of the more than 30 years of research on Watershed 7 (WS 7) at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory. It argues that findings from WS 7 provide important information on the management of southern Appalachians mixed-hardwood forests. The WS 7 study provides an opportunity to conduct detailed research on the effectiveness of previously established best management practices for forest road construction activities, and to evaluate some new road standards meant to reduce erosion and sediment movement. Water yield responses measured following harvest on WS 7 also support the regional use of a previously derived empirical model for predicting short-term annual flow responses for forest management planning in similar hardwood forests. The chapter concludes with a summary of perceptions of long-term changes in economic values and ecological services in a management context.

This chapter describes how, in 1837, there was only one way to approach Ducktown from the west: along a footpath that began in the Tennessee Valley and then climbed up and over Little Frog Mountain before descending into the Ducktown Basin. It is easy to imagine that a weary traveler might have stopped at some open place along the crest to take a breather and to scan the vista before moving on. The traveler would have seen a great expanse of Southern Appalachian hardwood forest, predominantly oak, chestnut, hickory, and tulip poplar, stretching across the floor of the Ducktown Basin and up the slopes of the surrounding mountains. The sweep of the woods was occasionally broken by the cabins and fields of the few Cherokees who dwelt there, a limited sign of human presence that served to emphasize the dominance of forest and mountains.

This chapter describes cypress-tupelo swamps and adjacent bottomland hardwood forests in the Pontchartrain basin. The major vegetation type of the Pontchartrain basin forested wetlands is bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) and tupelo (Nyssa aquatic and N. sylvatica) swamps. These cypress-tupelo swamps are characteristic of coastal Louisiana and the Southeast where wetlands occur with salinities averaging below about 4 ppt. However, several different community types may be recognized based upon the dominant trees.

This chapter describes Prairie Grove as a town covered with an extension of the hardwood forest that filled the flood plain of the Illinois. A longtime resident wrote that the thicket atop the hill was so dense a “man on horseback could only be seen at intervals.” One of the peculiarities of an Ozark forest is that several species of trees retain their desiccated foliage through the winter. Consequently, the woods on and around Prairie Grove provided soldiers in both armies with a measure of concealment even in December. This was especially convenient for the Confederates, whose somber gray and butternut uniforms closely matched nature's wintry palette.