Morgan-Monroe
and Yellowwood State Forests
 Study sites were spread over Morgan-Monroe State Forest (MMSF) and Yellowwood State Forest (YSF) in south central Indiana. MMSF is over 9,712 hectares in Morgan and Monroe Counties, and was established in 1929. YSF encompasses over 9,439 hectares of Brown County and was created in 1940.
Management Units were established in MMSF and YSF. Each unit has a central research core area and a buffer area around this core. The units were created using existing DoF management tracts. Each research core was comprised of 2-3 management tracts, and tracts adjacent to these cores were designated as buffers. The size of the research cores and their buffer areas ranged from 364 ha (900 acres) to 405 ha (1000 acres). A total of 9 management units were established in MMSF and YSF. The 9 management units were randomly drawn from 11 possible areas. Each of the 9 units was then randomly assigned to a treatment, with 3 control units, 3 even-aged management units, and 3 uneven-aged management units.
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Control: The three Management Units assigned to control will receive no harvest or burn treatments in the 200-acre Research Core for the duration of the study. The control units will be used to monitor variation in plant and animal populations and communities in the absence of active forest management.
Uneven-aged
management units: Uneven-aged management within the designated Research Cores will consist of four 0.4 ha (1.0 ac), two 1.2 ha (3.0 ac), and two 2 ha (5.0 ac) openings. In the remaining area of the research core, single tree selection with a target basal area of 16.1 – 23.0 m2/ha (70 – 100 ft2/ac) will be marked. Single trees will not be marked within 15.2 m (50 ft) of the harvest area boundaries to avoid expanding the size of the openings. The harvest design for the Research Core was designed in consultation with HEE researchers. This treatment is to replicate the current silvicultural practices used at Morgan-Monroe and Yellowwood State Forests.
Even-aged management
units: Even-aged management within the Research Core will consist of 4-hectare (10-acre) openings using clearcut and shelterwood harvesting methods. Four openings will be created; two openings will be clearcut and two will be shelterwood. The return interval for each opening will be 100 years. The total area harvested in the first year is 16 hectares per Core (48 hectares for the three even-aged Cores). Guidelines for best management practices will be followed.
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Control |
Uneven-aged |
Even-aged |
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Vegetation Sampling: Twenty x twenty meter plots will
be distributed along transects perpendicular to the slope
extending from the uncut forest adjacent to the harvest
opening through the opening (Figure 1) for vegetation sampling.
One half of each plot will be used to inventory natural
tree regeneration, woody shrubs and vines and herbaceous
species and the other one half will be planted with oak
seedlings on 2x2 meter spacing. Inventories will be made
prior to harvest, during the first growing season following
harvest and at three year intervals after the initial inventory.
Survival and height growth will be collected for woody
species and per cent cover will be collected for herbaceous
species.
Animal Sampling: Species selected for study include a range of vertebrate
taxa that represent both species of management concern
and species indicative of microhabitat conditions and successional
stages. Selected forest vertebrates will be monitored
before and after management treatments to determine the
impacts on individual, population and community levels.
Surveys of breeding birds, small mammals, bats, and amphibians
will target selected species of interest, but data will
be collected on all species detected. Survey techniques
will be taxon-specific, and will combine efforts for species
groups with similar detectabilities; for instance aural
point counts for breeding birds. Live trapping
will be used to determine population estimates of native
rodents, whereas ultrasonic detection
will be conducted for bats. Formal surveys will be augmented
by visual searches and reports of incidental observations
of selected species (e.g., box turtles, snakes). As with
the vegetation sampling, survey plots for all taxa will
include the harvest opening, the adjacent forest edge,
and the uncut forest extending away from the openings into
the 200-acre core areas.
In addition to vertebrate species sampling, an important
aspect of the project is the invertebrate component. Longhorned
beetles and moth species are also being collected to determine
the affects of timber management on their populations.
Social Sampling: Many attitudes and values toward forest
management are held by stakeholders. We aim to better understand
attitudes toward forest management practices and policies,
to engage stakeholders and decision-makers in dialogue,
and to design outreach programs aimed at affecting the
attitudes and behavior of recreational visitors and landowners
living adjacent to or near the Morgan-Monroe State Forest.
The sample for this component of the research consists
of neighboring landowners and recreational visitors to
the forest.
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The HEE is in its initial
stages and is planned as a 100-year project. We will
be able to quantify the responses of plants and animals
to
timber harvesting.
However, ultimately that information will result in management prescriptions
allowing sustainability of all forest resources and improved quality of
life for Indiana residents.
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Indiana Division
of Forestry
Purdue University
The Nature Conservancy
Widlife Diversity Section, Indiana
Division of Fish and Wildlife
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