Restoration Ecology Research
Forestry

For more information on forestry and forestry related topics, please visit the DNR's Forestry Web pages.

Restoration forestry is natural management. It uses the historic forest as a model for the future forest. Restoration forestry can generally be defined as: "restoring ecologically and economically sustainable native forests that are, or after reasonable restoration, will be representative of prehistoric or historic landscapes and that also serve a society's need for forest products and services."

The goal of restoration forestry is to restore and sustain a historic forest to a condition that resembles the structure and function of a "reference native forest". The term "reference native forest" can be interpreted as the way a whole forest once appeared with all of its diversity. A reference native forest does not represent a particular point in time. It represents a period of time and the forest structure that was characteristic of that period. The pre-European and post-Native American settlement forest provides the most scientifically sound reference forest for North America.

This excerpt on restoration forestry was taken from Definition, Goal, Philosophy, and History of Restoration Forestry written by Dr. Thomas M. Bonnicksen, Professor of Forest Science, Texas A&M University.

For more information on forestry and forestry related topics, please visit the DNR's Forestry Web pages.

Science Services is currently engaged in the following projects relating to restoration forestry

• Mapping and Analysis of Northern Wisconsin Pre-European Forest
• Structure and Function of Regional Landscapes
• Comparison of Old-Growth and Managed Forest Communities
• Relation of Regional Forest Change to Northern Forest Birds
• Oak Ecosystem Management