Alternative Silvicultural Practices in Appalachian Forest Ecosystems:
Implications For Diversity, Resilience and Commercial Production

The hardwood forests of the Southern Appalachians are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. The complex assemblage of flora and fauna in the region is a product of the large variation in habitat types created by differences in geology, elevation, landform, climate and soils in the region. The demands for commodity and non-commodity uses of forests in the Southern Appalachians continue to increase as populations in nearby urban areas expand. Silvicultural practices that include partial harvest rather than clearcutting are emerging as the preferred alternative to balance the competing goals of timber production and preservation of habitat and species diversity in southern hardwood forests. However, little data exist on the impacts of these silvicultural alternatives on timber production, and the diversity of flora and fauna in the Southern Appalachians. A cooperative project among Virginia Tech, the USDA Forest Service, and Westvaco was established in 1994 to address these issues in a systematic manner using a designed experiment. The study sites provide a template for a wide variety of research on the sustainability of managed Appalachian hardwood forests.