Three land grant universities in Indiana, Missouri and Tennessee, have formed a consortium to pursue a common mission of sustaining private forests in the Central Hardwood Region. Addressing this mission embraces two inter-related sustaining links: One is the role of natural resources sustaining people, and the other is people working to sustain natural resources. From pre-historical times to today, when either of these sustaining links weakens, so does the other, resulting in adverse impacts to both natural resources and to people. To nurture these two links, this project has two overarching goals. The first is to help landowners, communities and society realize greater benefits from forest resources. The second it to improve how forests are cared for—improving forest stewardship. To pursue these goals, project activities will be organized around the following three objectives:
1. Provide better information and improve decision-making tools and processes. Forest resources are complicated biological systems and a primary objective of the project is to work in partnership with landowners and other interested stakeholders in evaluating alternative forest management options and their local and landscape-scale consequences. These options will include present and future economic, social, and environmental considerations. An aim of the project is to help develop comprehensive data and information that meet the needs and interests of landowners and other forest stakeholders.
2. Improve forest policies. An important forest policy dilemma is balancing landowner’s rights with those that are public in nature like water quality and quantity, wildlife and biodiversity and scenic beauty. Historically our forest policies have not effectively integrated these private and public rights, and this has fostered mixed signals for landowners and conflict. This project will work in partnership with landowners and other forest stakeholders to identify and analyze alternative policies that better integrate public and private rights. Incentives and policies will be sought that will sustain private forests in Tennessee through greater benefit realization and improved stewardship.
3. Develop collaborative relationships. An important resource that landowners, communities and resource professionals have to work with is their ability to work effectively together. The project will work with these multiple partners to develop a common ground of shared interests and build collaborative relationships. History has shown that progress and innovation best come when people work effectively together, and this is an important objective of this project. Building collaborative relationships between and among landowners, stakeholders, and resource professionals to address natural resource issues on a community level will provide a long-term mechanism needed for sustaining private forests beyond the life of the project.
The Central Hardwood Region is predominately privately owned and dominated by temperate deciduous forests with a rich and biologically diverse association of plants and animals. The region spans 18 states, encompasses 340 million acres, and is the principal source of high-value hardwood species in the U.S. (Parker 1993). It also contains some of the largest river systems in the nation. Much of the region has been converted from forest to other land uses over the past 150 years, predominantly farmland and urban centers (Iverson 1988). Many of the less productive agricultural lands have reverted back to forest lands. These forests are dominant landscape and land use features and are integral in the lives of people living and working in the region. These forests are also facing growing demands and pressures from many sources. The hardwood forests of this region are the backbone of the region’s timber economy, and changing land-use on federal forest lands has shifted timber demands increasingly to privately owned forest lands. For instance, 87% of the harvest of hardwoods in Indiana, Missouri, and Tennessee in 1997 came from private, non-industrial lands (USDA Forest Service 1997). The region’s population is also growing as are demands for recreation and tourism, and urban and commercial expansion. The number of forest landowners is increasing and the average parcel size of ownership is falling. From a recent Natural Resource Conservation Service report at the national level (USDA, NRCS 1999), forest acreage is declining at a rate of over 3 million acres per year due to urban sprawl. Both land ownership fragmentation and habitat fragmentation are exacerbating resource use pressures, and collectively the long term sustainability of private forest lands in the regions is being threatened.
Our world is changing and doing so rapidly. Driven by
population growth, technological advances and market globalization, we
are growing increasingly interconnected. More than ever, land-use decisions
reverberate throughout communities, be they to develop commercial centers,
fragment forest lands into second home developments, harvest timber or
set aside forested areas for conservation ends.
This is a research and education demonstration project, one to determine
if--by working together and using good science--forest management can
be improved to raise benefits to landowners and society while simultaneously
improving forest stewardship. In each of the three states, the project
will have a specific geographic focus, and by working in partnership with
landowners, professionals and forest stakeholders in these communities,
questions will be addressed regarding using best science, alternative
forest management strategies and options, and working together in new
and innovative ways.
To be successful, the effort must be highly collaborative and include partnerships with landowners, stakeholders and resource professionals. Research information and decision tools must be need driven and reflect landowner and stakeholder values, interests and input, while simultaneously being comprehensive and reflecting impacts on the environment and local communities. This partnership strategy recognizes the important linkages between and among the project and landowners, stakeholders, rural communities and resource professionals. In working toward consortium goals, effectively managing the relationships between these multiple partners is crucial. A consortium stakeholder advisory council will be formed representing landowners and other stakeholders from across the three state region. In addition, local collaborative community groups will be formed within specific geographic units in each state.
The following watersheds are the geographic foci for
project activities: The Upper Wabash River Watershed in Indiana, the St.
Francis-Black River Watersheds in Missouri and two systems in Tennessee,
the Hatchie Watershed in West Tennessee and the Emory-Obed watershed in
Middle Tennessee. For each state, and within these watersheds, a limited
number of blocks of land (10-15 blocks, each comprising several thousand
acres) will be identified and will form the specific geographic focus
for project activity. Within each block and with landowner consent, inventory
samples will be conducted and integrated with existing data to determine
current and projected forest conditions. This inventory will include GIS
(Geographic Information System) data and maps to provide detailed land-use
and land-cover patterns. Forest management options addressing landowner
and societal needs will be developed to show alternative ecological, economic
and social impacts using both numerical data and information as well as
GIS data and maps. In three of the blocks, the project will work with
landowners, forest stakeholders and resource professionals to evaluate
alternative management options for forest management at a community level.
Social and economic profiles will be also be developed for these three
areas, drawing on existing information and data bases as well as from
surveys that will be done for this project.
Local landowner stakeholder advisory committees will be formed within
communities in the watershed to provide direction and issue-oriented oversight
to project efforts within that area. This group also will serve as the
conduit for efforts related to community education and deliberations regarding
landscape-level decisions on land use. Cooperating agencies and organizations
will be utilized in each group’s formation and continued functioning.
Further, a technical group of local representatives of agency and other
professionals will be formed paralleling the advisory committee, and will
be called upon for local information and technical support.
This project is a regional research and demonstration project involving
two other universities, University
of Missouri and Purdue
University and funded by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. It is also interdisciplinary involving
components and principal investigations. You
are encouraged to visit these components and other links in this web site
to find out more about this project.