Forest health improvements underway at Stoneville Woods
Photo courtesy of Kenner Patton/Mississippi State University
Work is underway on a twenty-five-year comprehensive forest management plan aimed at improving the 2,800-acre bottomland hardwood portion of Mississippi State University’s Delta Research and Extension Center (DREC). This tract is known as “Stoneville Woods.”
“In forestry, a tract of property like Stoneville Woods is one large ecosystem. To maximize the potential of a working forest, these systems need intervention,” said Jeff Gore, head of the Delta Research and Extension Center. “Stoneville Woods is part of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station’s (MAFES) forest land and provides benefits for the university and the citizens of Mississippi, so I feel a strong responsibility to maximize and protect the forest’s potential. Our goal is to improve the health of Stoneville Woods by selectively clearcutting some of the more mature areas of the forest.”
The plan, developed by officials from DREC and MAFES, calls for staggered clearcutting of roughly one hundred acres every three years. Rather than cutting one contiguous block, each block will be divided into smaller units, leaving most of the woods untouched under the current plan.
This year, about ninety acres will be cut in the southwest corner of the woods. Two blocks will be cut west of Feather Farms Road, and two blocks east of the road. Additional blocks will be cut every three years. Portions of the funds generated from timber sales will be used to prepare and reforest the woods with desirable native species of bottomland hardwoods.
“Trees provide so many ecological services — improving air quality, filtering water, heat abatement and wildlife habitat,” Gore said. “We remain committed to the management of Stoneville Woods for the benefit of residents in the Mississippi Delta.”
The Delta Research and Extension Center is an important part of the Mississippi State University land-grant system, where the Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service merge to ensure the productivity and profitability of Mississippi Delta farmers and stakeholders while conserving the region’s abundant natural resources.
