In the northeastern United States, nearly all lands have been impacted by European settlers and their followers since the 1600s. Settlers modified the landscape through clearing, plowing, grazing, logging, burning, abandoning, developing, and fragmenting what was once nearly contiguous forest. Our study was designed to 1) determine the composition, dynamics, and natural disturbance regimes of presettlement forest communities in the northeast, 2) describe the changes and biodiversity impacts imposed on the landscape by human land use over the past 400 years, and 3) offer realistic suggestions for sustainable forest management that could simulate presettlement ecological processes while supplying timber resources, thus favoring natural species assemblages and promoting long-term conservation of biodiversity in managed forests.

The study area, the “northeastern United States” included Ecoregions 221 and M212 northeast of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, as well as Ecoregion 212. Three forest types were defined within this area based on a review of literature: 1) pine barrens, 2) transition hardwoods, and 3) northern hardwoods. A fourth type, central hardwoods, and a fifth type that occurs at high latitudes and elevations, spruce-fir, were not included in the study. An extensive literature review revealed that each forest type had a unique presettlement species composition and structure that responded to a suite of natural disturbances and their effects. In contrast, historic land uses such as agricultural abandonment and extensive cutting have homogenized forest composition and structure across the northeastern landscape. Therefore, we used specific data on the frequency and intensity of natural disturbance and the likely composition and age structure of natural vegetation to inform management guidelines for each forest zone. These guidelines were constrained by the legacy of former land use on the current landscape, as well as effects of current ownership patterns, fragmentation, and the economic feasibility of mimicking natural forest composition and dynamics with silviculture.

Deliverables for Project B1.1 include:

• A final project report, consisting of three major sections, each detailing presettlement, postsettlement, and suggested management for each of the three forest types.
• Two outreach publications will be prepared in conjunction with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. These will be oriented for private landowners and practicing foresters.
• Poster presentations at regional conferences, including The Wildlife Society and the New England Society of American Foresters.
• A website to make our findings available to landowners, managers, and the general public. It supports all of the information from the final report in a user-friendly and logical layout that includes a clickable map of the Northeast, plus downloadable resources such as our conference posters, extension publications, a full bibliography, and links to various organizations.