Category: Non-Timber Forest Products

New Partnership With Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Protects Natural and Cultural Resources

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Climate change is upon us, and communities who use wild-harvested native plants for food, medicine, and cultural practices are identifying ways to protect their natural and cultural resources. The need to prepare for further climate change in the future and mitigate its effects on natural resources in the Southern Appalachian region has led to a…  More 

More than Timber

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Long before the technology to harvest timber existed, forest plants and fungi provided food, medicine, and other items. Today, edible and medicinal forest products, as well as decorative florals and specialty woods, are collectively known as non-timber forest products (NTFPs). A new national assessment and synthesis, coordinated by U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientist…  More 

The Olustee Experimental Forest

by Carol Whitlock  • 
The 3,135-acre Olustee Experimental Forest (Olustee), located in northeast Florida was established in 1931. Part of the Osceola National Forest, the experimental forest served as the primary study site for a number of U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) units for almost 60 years. In the beginning, research on the Olustee focused mostly on…  More 

The Next Fifty Years of Acorn Production

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Some acorns go on to become the next generation of oak trees, but others are eaten by birds, bears, rodents, and deer. Rodents are in turn eaten by carnivores, and deer browsing affects which kinds of plants become established and survive. “Acorns have a far-reaching influence on wildlife species and forest ecology,” says U.S. Forest…  More 

Non-Timber Forest Products

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
From walking sticks to herbal medicines Jim Chamberlain, research forest products technologist with Southern Research Station Forest Inventory and Analysis unit, organizes non-timber forest products into four general categories: 1)      Edible and culinary products harvested from the forest include mushrooms, ferns, and the fruits, leaves, and roots of many plant species. Edibles commonly gathered and…  More 

Reflections on the Southern Forest Futures Project

by David Wear and John Greis, Editors, Southern Forest Futures Project Technical Report  • 
In 2008, we started the Southern Forest Futures Project with 15 public workshops held in each of the 13 States of our region. In Baton Rouge, Asheville, Stillwater, Charleston, and all the other locations, we discussed and compiled the concerns of more than 700 resource professionals and other interested  citizens regarding the great and vast…  More 

Tracking Those Other Forest Products

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Timber is certainly the best-known forest product, but since before the time of European settlement, people have harvested other plants from the forests for a wide range of purposes. The U.S. Forest Service National Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program has assessed timber product output (TPO) for more than 60 years by surveying the primary producers of industrial…  More 

Where’s the Ginseng?

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Newly published research by the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) demonstrates that co-managing eastern hardwood forests for timber and non-timber forest products could boost local economies while helping conserve biodiversity. SRS scientist Jim Chamberlain worked with Michael McGufffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) and Virginia Tech associate professor Stephen Prisley…  More 

Are Black Cohosh Harvests Sustainable?

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
In Southern Appalachians forests, harvests of non-timber forest products—plants used for culinary, floral, medicinal and other purposes—just keep increasing. Though overharvesting seems to be a major cause for population declines in plants such as American ginseng, black cohosh, and other medicinal plants, forest managers have lacked methods that would allow them to measure the extent…  More 

Forest Service Co-Sponsors Minority Landowner Magazine Conference

by Perdita B. Spriggs, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center  • 
The annual Minority Landowner Magazine conference is a favorite among small and limited resource landowners. This year’s seventh anniversary conference in Greensboro, North Carolina, themed “Keeping Your Farm Productive, Profitable and Yours,” engaged more than 250 participants, including federal, state, university, and private agencies and organizations sharing information to help maintain family farms. What keeps…  More