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: Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus Thunb.)

Synonym: Asian bittersweet

History and use. Introduced from Asia in 1736. Very showy ornamental with berried vines that are traditionally collected as home decorations in winter.

Resembles American bittersweet, C. scandens L., which has only terminal flowers and fruit, and leaves usually twice as large but absent among the flowers and fruit. Hybridization suspected between the two species.

Also resembles grape vines, Vitis spp., in winter, but can be distinguished by persistent scarlet fruit versus grapes.

Ecology. Occurs on a wide range of sites mainly along forest edges. Found as scattered plants to extensive infestations in forest openings, margins, and roadsides as well as in meadows. Mostly shade intolerant. Colonizes by prolific vine growth and seedlings, and spreads by bird- and other animal-dispersed seeds and humans collecting decorative fruit-bearing vines.

Plant. Deciduous, twining and climbing woody vine to 60 feet in tree crowns, forming thicket and arbor infestations...(More)

Recent Publications Added To Our Website

We have 28,752 publications online that you can view and print.

• Invasion Dynamics and Genotypic Diversity of Cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) at the Point of Introduction in the Southeastern United States
• Tennessee's timber industry - an assessment of timber product output and use, 2007
• Alabama's Timber industry - an assessment of timber product output and use, 2007
• South Carolina's timber industry - an assessment of timber product output and use, 2007
• The southern forest futures project: using public input to define the issues
• Getting science out -- a boston mountains forest underplanting tool online
• Georgia's forests, 2004