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
	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: Winged Burning Bush Euonymus alata (Thunb.) Sieb.

Synonyms: wahoo, winged euonymus, burning bush

History and use. Introduced from northeast Asia in the 1860s. Widely planted as an ornamental and for highway beautification.

Ecology. Shade tolerant. Colonizes by root suckers and spreads by animal-dispersed seeds.

Plant. Deciduous, wing-stemmed, bushy shrub to 12 feet in height, multiple stemmed and much branched. Canopy broad and leafy. Small and obovate leaves green and turning bright scarlet to purplish red in fall. Paired purple fruit in fall.

Stem. Four corky wings or ridges appearing along young lime-green squarish twigs and becoming wider with age. Numerous opposite branches, with bases encircled by corky rings. Larger branches and bark becoming light gray.

Leaves. Opposite, obovate, and thin, only 1 to 2 inches long and 0.4 to 0.8 inch wide. Tips tapering to an acute point. Margins finely crenate. Both surfaces smooth and hairless. Dark green with whitish midvein above and light green beneath turning bright crimson to purplish red in fall...(More)

Recent Publications Added To Our Website

We have 29,908 publications online that you can view and print.

• Interpreting historical streamflow data from a third-order Coastal Plain watershed: runoff response to storm events.
• Partial disturbance of resources foraged by Reticulitermes flavipes

• Host Specificity of Argopistes tsekooni (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), a Potential Biological Control Agent of Chinese Privet

• History, distribution, damage, and life cycle of a pine shoot gali sawfly, Xyela gallicaulis (Hymenoptera: Xyelidae). J. Entomol. Sci. 44(3):276-283
• Site conditions, fire, and root disease: Leptographium sp. and Heterobasidion annosum paradigms. pp. 122-127. M. Garbelotto & P. Gontheir (Editors). Proceedings 12th International Conference on Root and Butt Rots of Forest Trees.
• Evaluation of HDPE water sample bottles and PVC sampler tubing used in herbicide dissipation studies.
• Studies on black stain root disease in ponderosa pine. pp. 236-240. M. Garbelotto & P. Gonthier (Editors). Proceedings 12th International Conference on Root and Butt Rots of Forest Trees.