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...

I am Jim Reaves, and I welcome you to the Southern Research Station.

As the new director, I pledge to build on our Station's long history of contributing to forest sustainability in the Southern United States by providing credible and useful scientific information.

Over my 26 years with the Forest Service, I have had many positions within our agency including scientist and assistant director with the Southern Research Station. Now I am thrilled to be back leading what I believe to be the premiere natural resources research organization in the South!

As I begin my tenure I think that it is important to share with you the basis of my vision for the future. (more....)

Invasive of the Month: Kudzu (Pueraria montana)

Kudzu is a deciduous twining, trailing, mat-forming, woody leguminous vine 35 to 100 feet with lobed three-leaflet leaves. Read more about the "vine that ate the South" and how to control it.

Plant. Deciduous twining, trailing, mat-forming, ropelike woody leguminous vine, 35 to 100 feet (10 to 30 m) long with three-leaflet leaves. Large semiwoody tuberous roots reaching depths of 3 to 16 feet (1 to 5 m). Leaves and small vines dying with first frost and matted dead leaves persistent during winter.

Stem. Woody vines to 10 inches (25 cm) in diameter, round in cross section, with infrequent branching. Stems yellow green with dense erect golden hairs and upward matted silver hairs, aging to ropelike, light gray, and hairless. Frequent unswollen nodes that root when on the ground. Mature bark eventually rough, rigid, and usually dark brown.

Leaves. Alternate, pinnately compound three-leaflet leaves, each leaflet 3 to 7 inches (8 to 18 cm) long and 2.5 to 8 inches (6 to 20 cm) wide...(More)

Recent Publications Added To Our Website

We have 25,299 publications online that you can view and print.

• Investigating habitat value to inform contaminant remediation options: approach
• Drought during canopy development has lasting effect on annual carbon balance in a deciduous temperate forest
• Nature-based outdoor recreation trends and wilderness
• The latest trends in nature-based outdoor recreation
• Tree-ring model interprets growth decline in natural stands of loblolly pine in the southeastern United States
• Moisture in untreated, a cetylated, and furfurylated Norway spruce studied during drying using time domain NMR
• Genetic diversity within and among populations of shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.) and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.)
• Natural hybridization within seed sources of shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.) and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.)
• Forest inventory and management-based visual preference models of southern pine stands
• Screenometer: a device for sampling vegetative screening in forested areas
• Forest-range resources of Southwest Louisiana
• Botanical composition and nutritive value of cattle diets on southern pine range