Northern Research Station

Research Work Unit FS NE 4557, Disturbance Ecology and Management of Oak-Dominated Forests, is located at the Forestry Sciences Laboratory, Morgantown, West Virginia to provide methods for creating and maintaining healthy, sustainable oak-dominated forests based on a more complete understanding of ecological relationships, landscape ecology principles, silvicultural management, and gypsy moth population dynamics, and to incorporate this knowledge into management guidelines and decision support systems.

Four problem areas assigned to this RWU are: (1) the dynamics of vegetation response to defoliation by gypsy moth and other established exotic organisms and interactions with other forms of disturbance; (2) the population dynamics of gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar (L.)) or other introduced pests at landscape scales including invasion spread dynamics and forest susceptibility and the use of that understanding to develop appropriate management decisions; (3) the development of biologically and economically effective silvicultural treatments for rehabilitating and regenerating oak forests, especially regeneration failures due to severe gypsy moth mortality and oak decline; and (4) the synthesis and integration of results from studies of disturbance effects and dynamics into models for decision support systems and applications to management. In addition, we have an older mission problem area: (M1) maintaining long term studies and refinement of silvicultural practices for reducing gypsy moth effects and transferring this technology to users.

Selected Research Information Addressed from NE-4557

• Our Research
• Interagency Research Forum on Invasive Species
• Publications (1983-2005)
• Personnel

This research work unit is located at the
Forestry Sciences Laboratory,
180 Canfield St.
Morgantown WV.
(304)285-1501
(304)285-1505 Fax

USDA Forest Service - Northern Research Station