Bottomland hardwood forests are river swamps. They are found along rivers and streams of the southeast and south central United States, generally in broad floodplains. These ecosystems are commonly found wherever streams or rivers at least occasionally cause flooding beyond their channel confines. They are deciduous forested wetlands, made up of different species of Gum (Nyssa sp.) and Oak (Quercus sp.) and Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum), which have the ability to survive in areas that are either seasonally flooded or covered with water much of the year. Identifying features of these wetland systems are the fluted or flaring trunks that develop in several species, and the presence of knees, or aerial roots.

Bottomland Hardwoods serve a critical role in the watershed by reducing the risk and severity of flooding to downstream communities by providing areas to store floodwater. In addition, these wetlands improve water quality by filtering and flushing nutrients, processing organic wastes, and reducing sediment before it reaches open water.

Two hundred years ago, magnificent bottomland forests covered almost thirty million acres across the Southeastern United States. Today, only about forty percent of that area still supports these productive and unique ecosystems. Is is estimated that losses of these swamps reached rates as high as 431,000 acres per year from 1965 to 1975, largely due to conversion to croplands, particularly for soybeans. In some regions of the lower Mississippi floodplain, only a very small percentage of original bottomland hardwood forests remain.

By: Chandler Van Voorhis
With GreenTrees, participating landowners now have the potential to sit back and watch their forest grow while revenues increase. Read More »


Most Mississippi alluvial forest restoration plantings have not performed well. The Center for Bottomlands Hardwoods Research has the answers.

Although about 370,000 acres of farmland in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV) have been planted in bottomland hardwoods over the last decade, more than 90 percent of the planted sites have not performed well, failing to meet the criterion of 100 woody stems per acre. Attributing these failures to lack of information on how to analyze site conditions and overcome difficult conditions, SRS researchers provided the following guidelines based on research at the SRS Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research in Stoneville, MS.

Read More »


A bottomland hardwood forest is basically a “swamp” or deciduous forested wetland. These lowland forests grow along river “bottoms,” and tend to flood during the rainy season. The Mississippi Valley was entirely covered by bottomland hardwood forest at the time of European settlement, when it was the largest extent of that habitat type on earth. For about one hundred years, beginning with the first Swamp Land Act in 1849, the federal government provided incentives to states and landowners to reclaim, or drain, bottomland forests for agriculture or development. Read More »


By: Harvey Kennedy, Jr, James Allen,
We prepared this bulletin to assist you--as a farmer or other private landowner--in reestablishing forests on part of your land. It will be most useful to you if your land is in the Lower Mississippi Valley and your main reason for reforestation is to produce wildlife habitat, either for private enjoyment or as a means of obtaining supplemental income. Read More »

Mississippi's private citizens own approximately 75 percent of the state's land. For many Mississippi landowners their property is more than a financial asset; it is part of their family's history, their sense of community and their state pride. But the Mississippi landscape is changing. Today about 80 percent of all Mississippians live in cities and towns, compared to about 25 percent 50 years ago. As our urban population grows, natural habitats and scenic open spaces are displaced.

The Mississippi Land Trust, a charitable, 501(c)(3) organization, works only with private, willing landowners to find ways to preserve Mississippi's rich history, prairies, red clay hills, bottomlands and bayous, coastal savannas, longleaf pine forests and scenic rivers and streams.

The Mississippi Land Trust's primary tool for land conservation is a conservation easement. It is an alternative to selling the land for development. A conservation easement will allow a willing landowner to retain ownership of the land, protect important environmental or historical assets of the land from future development and obtain certain tax advantages.

Below are a handful of conservation and restoration success stories, courtesy of the Mississippi Land Trust.

By: Wes Burger, Kristine O. Evans, Mark D. Smith, and Sam Riffell
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers a suite of Farm Bill conservation programs and practices that provide incentives to enhance environmental quality on privately-owned agricultural lands. In 2004, the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) initiated conservation practice Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds (CP33) under  the continuous sign-up Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to target recovery of northern bobwhite (Colinus virgianianus) and other upland bird species in row-crop  agricultural landscapes. This was the first CRP practice designed specifically to help meet recovery objectives of a large-scale wildlife conservation initiative and the first to  require a wildlife monitoring component as part of its practice directive. The FSA initially allocated 250,000 CP33 acres to 35 states (increased to 350,000 acres in 2010) to be actively managed over a period of 10 years and charged the Southeast Quail Study Group (SEQSG, now National Bobwhite Technical Committee) with development of a coordinated CP33 monitoring protocol to generate measures of population response for northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and other priority bird species at multiple spatial scales. Read More »


The Mississippi Land Trust and Ferris negotiated the terms of the conservation easement together. This binding agreement prohibits any development not compatible with a relatively natural preserve. The property's roads, walking paths and a small shed can be maintained. A camp house can be built, but no commercial structures can be built. The terms of the conservation easement protecting the property reduced its appraised value and its property taxes by more than 60 percent. Federal tax law also allows the Ferris family to deduct their charitable contribution from their income taxes for a period of up to six years. Read More »


Coles Creek Land and Timber Company (Coles Creek) is located approximately ten miles north of Natchez, Mississippi across the river from Waterproof, Louisiana. This 1,355 acre tract is located in a strategic area of the Mississippi Flyway. Approximately 500 acres were reforested to bottomland hardwoods in March 2001. Read More »


While in college, Barthell Joseph made several trips to the home of a friend whose family owned property near Hollandale, Mississippi, close to the Mississippi River. Joseph and his friend would spend their mornings in the rice fields hunting ducks and their afternoons telling stories and relaxing by the fire. "I enjoyed myself so much on these trips, I knew I would come back to this area after I finished school." He moved back home to Greenville in the early 1990s to work in a small business and several years later bought an 80 acre farm a few miles from Greenville. But Joseph was more interested in duck hunting than farming. Read More »


Ernie Lane and Fred Bordelon grew up Greenville, Mississippi where they developed an appreciation for the bottomland hardwood forests in the floodplain of the Mississippi River. They both enjoy fishing and duck hunting and exploring the natural world around them. Few people have spent more time hunting ducks in the Mississippi Delta than Bordelon and Lane. Read More »


The Duck Lake Project exemplifies what can happen when business, government and conservation interests work together to protect the environment. The conservation easement is the project's cornerstone; it establishes the legal framework that outlines the future of Duck Lake. Tommy Goldsby puts it plainly, "The conservation easement provides for the needs of wildlife and industry in a way that the entire system, and the community, are better off than they were previously."
Read More »

Mississippi is a heavily forested state. The Mississippi Forestry Commission’s 2006 inventory states that 65%, or 19.6 million acres, of the state is forest. Of that, 78% is owned by nonindustrial forest landowners while the timber industry owns 10% and the remaining 12% is publicly owned. Loblolly-shortleaf pine is the predominant forest type, at 36%, while oak-hickory forest cloaks 27% of the state. In 2006, timber removals averaged 4% of current inventory.

Mississippi was the first state in the nation to establish a reforestation tax credit as a means of maintaining a forested landscape. In 2007, the state legislature increased the credit’s lifetime limit from $10,000 to $75,000.

Good forest management is important to maintain forests as a source of timber and wood pulp. However, that is just the beginning. Forests also provide wildlife habitat, recreational resources, aesthetic values, clean water, and clean air including the sequestration of carbon.

Best Management Practices, or BMPs, can help improve forest management. Developed by experienced practitioners or management and research organizations, they are based upon the best available science. BMPs will often save landowners money in the long term even as they improve the condition of forest resources in the short term.

The following are a selection of BMPs culled from various national, regional, state and local sources. Each is available for download as a pdf.

By: Mary Hightower, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Drought puts trees under chronic stress, leaving it vulnerable to attacks by disease and pests that a healthy tree could normally survive. Read More »


By: Maryland Cooperative Extension
Forest stewardship is the management of forest resources in a way that meets the needs of the current owners, but does not adversely affect use by future generations. It requires that the owner have a sense of responsibility, know the opportunities, be aware of the consequences of actions, and be guided by objectives. A forest stewardship plan is a working guide that allows the landowner to maximize the wildlife, timber, recreation, aesthetic value, and other benefits of owning woodland. A good plan combines the natural and physiographic characteristics of the woodlot with the interests and objectives of the owner to produce a set of forest management recommendations. This plan, if followed, should transform the forest into one that is enjoyable and productive for the owner and future generations.  Read More »


By: Terence Boyle
A number of resource managers, politicians, the general public and other stakeholders have called for a re-examination of the policy for forest management and strategies for fighting wildfires on public lands. Read More »


A practical guide to ways agricultural producers can profit from the growing environmental marketplace from American Farmland Trust, 2010. An in-depth 55-page handbook that introduces and surveys the types of environmental markets, how to get involved including evaluating financial returns and assessing risks, and what farmers and ranchers can do to encourage these markets.

Read More »


This is a 7-page fact sheet that covers life history, food requirements, habitat and forest management to benefit Bobwhite. Read More »


Across Southeast Georgia, thousands of landowners are faced with the decision of how to effectively manage post Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) pine stands. As the income from CRP contracts ends, many landowners with slash and longleaf pine stands are attracted to pine straw production to provide revenue in the mid-rotation years of the harvest cycle. Wheeler County has historically been a hub of pine straw production in Georgia. A study was designed to evaluate the impact of intensive management practices on pine straw production in Wheeler County. Read More »


A Prescribed Fire Association is a group of landown- ers and other concerned citizens that form a partnership to conduct prescribed burns. Prescribed burning is the key land management tool used to restore and maintain native plant communities to their former diversity and productivity for livestock production and wildlife habitat. Native prairies, shrublands, and forests supply the majority of livestock forage and much of the wildlife habitat in the U.S. Without fire, many native plant communities become dysfunctional and unproductive. Research has clearly shown that there is no substitute for fire.  Read More »


As a landowner, you may be approached by a logger or forester to have a “high grade” harvest of your woods, which they typically call “selective cutting.” Selective cutting refers to a harvest that does not cut all of the trees.

However, there are many forms of selective cutting. While high grading does leave trees after the harvest, the critical issues to consider are whether the harvest will meet your immediate goals and if the remaining trees will best meet your future goals.

All woodlands do not provide equal benefits. The number, size, type, and quality of the trees left after harvesting all affect what your woods will become in the future and, as a direct result, what benefits your woods will provide to you and those that follow. High grading generally takes the best trees and leaves the rest, and may not meet your needs. Read More »


Defines stormwater and its associated management issues and gives guidelines for the use of trees to filter and mitigate the effects of stormwater in developed areas. Read More »


Provides instructions for artificial regeneration, site prep, seedings and planting to re-establish longleaf pine.  The guidelines conclude, “ Longleaf pine has many desirable characteristics for landowners who have multiple-use forest management objectives. On appropriate sites, and with careful attention to detail during the regeneration phase, it is possible to enjoy the versatility of this species without compromising growth rates.” This paper was written by Chris Demers, Alan Long and Patrick Minogue of University of Florida extension. Read More »

BMPs oriented more specifically toward energy efficiency, invasive & native species, farms & agriculture and wildlife habitat are also available on this site.

By: James M. Vose, David L. Peterson, and Toral Patel-Weynand, Editors
This report is a scientific assessment of the current condition and likely future condition of forest resources in the United States relative to climatic variability and change. It serves as the U.S. Forest Service forest sector technical report for the National Climate Assessment and includes descriptions of key regional issues and examples of a risk-based framework for assessing climate-change effects. Read More »


By: Chandler Van Voorhis
With GreenTrees, participating landowners now have the potential to sit back and watch their forest grow while revenues increase. Read More »


By: Tom Tidwell
Read More »


This public hearing by the House Committee on Agricultural discusses national forest management and it's impacts on rural economies and communities. Click link below to view video.  Read More »


By: Char Miller
"One of the foundational principles of the U.S. Forest Service is water." This observation was made in reference to the impact of the Clean Water Act on the importance to watershed management within the national forests. This insight is now a matter of heightened concern as a shifting climate alters the levels of precipitation across the country. Read More »


By: Bruce Vincent
Rural America and the rest of the nation are experiencing a collision of visions. Rural Americans seek the conservation of their natural resources in combination with economic stability, while urban American visitors to these lands use political pressure to keep these lands pristine. Read More »


By: Leighton Spann - MSU Farmweek

Pine straw mulch is a favorite material for landscapers and gardeners in the southern United States. Millions of pine straw bales are used each year.

Producing pine straw can be a profitable source of income for landowners. It's possible for landowners with pine stands in the right condition to make $150 per acre by allowing pine straw producers collect fallen needles according to some sources. Longleaf and Slash pines are the preferred species but Loblolly is also being increasingly used.

To produce pine straw, pine stands must be at least 6 to 8 years old, but production peaks at about 15 years old. The best time of year to gather straw is October and November. Pine straw yields are estimated at 100 bales per acre for stands 6 to 15 years old and 200 bales per acre for trees over 15 years old. Today, millions of Mississippi acres in pine plantations are about 15 years old and have potential to produce high-quality pine straw.

Pine straw contains nutrients vital to tree growth. Therefore, landowners should fertilize their stands with diammonium phosphate (DAP) to replace the nutrients lost in baling. Otherwise, tree growth rates will suffer, particularly on nutrient-poor, outer coastal plain sites. Also, bale pine stands only every 3 years, instead of annually.

See how two Mississippi pine tree farmers make extra money by baling and selling the pine straw under their trees.

Read More »


By: Artis Ford - MSU Farmweek
The term "tree farming" was first used in the 1940's to introduce the public to sustainable forestry terminology they could easily understand. Farming implies continual stewardship and production of goods year after year. By linking the term "farming" with trees, foresters could communicate the concept of sustainable production of forest products over time. Tree Farming implies commitment to the land and was the philosophical opposite of the "cut-out and get-out" philosophy of the early 20th century.

Tree Farms are more than pine plantations or Christmas tree farms. Tree Farms are varied in nature and contain many different habitats and stages of forest regeneration, from seedlings to mature timber. Biodiversity is a critical component of a certified Tree Farm. Tree Farmers must maintain natural forest buffers and other aspects of conservation techniques. Watch a video about an award winning Mississippi tree farmer and his 870 acre tree farm.

Read More »


By: Artis Ford - MSU Farmweek
Prescribed burning is a very important management tool for maintaining and enhancing southern forestlands. Fire has been an important natural part in the development and maintenance of forests throughout history. To many of us, fire is a feared enemy that destroys everything in its path. Because of this, the use of controlled fires, such as prescribed burning, is underutilized as a management tool for improving and maintaining habitats. Watch this video on how prescribed burning actually improves woodlands and habitat. Read More »


Carbon credits trading has come to Mississippi. Learn the basics and find organizations who can help you enter the market. A number of programs now exist that facilitate payments to tree farmers and other landowners for storing carbon. How do you store carbon? Plant trees! The programs generally serve as brokers between many small landowners and large emitters of carbon dioxide (such as electric power plants). Emitters will pay for the carbon storage, which is measured in metric tons and called "credits." Read More »

The forests of the southern United States are a vital natural asset for the region, the country, and the world. Southern Forests for the Future seeks to raise awareness about this important natural resource and the ecosystem services forests provide, such as fresh water, timber and recreation. Learn more about these forests by exploring the interactive mapping data and other information to highlight key features and trends for southern forests.

Explore the forests with an interactive map application developed by the World Resources Institute's Southern Forests for the Future project.

Read More »


By: Butler, B., Tyrrell M., Feinberg, G., VanManen S., Wiseman L., Wallinger S.
Social marketing—the use of commercial marketing techniques to effect positive social change—is a promising means by which to develop more effective and ef?cient outreach, policies, and services for family forest owners. A hierarchical, multivariate analysis based on landowners’ attitudes reveals four groups of owners to whom programs can be tailored: woodland retreat, working the land, supplemental income, and ready to sell. A prime prospect analysis segmenting landowners according to their level of engagement and interest in land management can be used to improve the ef?ciency of program implementation. Landowners showing low levels of engagement but high levels of interest are of special interest because they are likely to be receptive to a social marketing message and therefore should be a priority target for any such efforts. Using the demographic pro?le of the average family forest owner, newspapers and television were identi?ed as important means for mass communication. Read More »


Best Management Practices (BMPs) are non-regulatory guidelines for silvicultural practices designed to protect water quality in Mississippi. Every three years, a statewide monitoring survey is conducted and a report is published. Best Management Practices (BMPs) are non-regulatory guidelines for silvicultural practices designed to protect water quality in Mississippi. Every three years, a statewide monitoring survey is conducted and a report is published. Read More »

Sustainable forestry is based on the premise that responsible environmental behavior and sound business decisions can not only co-exist but support one another.  The Mississippi Forestry Association leads implementation of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative in Mississippi.  The Mississippi Forestry Commission has published a Best Management Practices guide for forest landowners that will minimize nonpoint source runoff and improve water quality throughout the state.

Read More »


By: K Gregg Elliott
According to the Mississippi Prescribed Fire Council, periodic fire played an important ecological role in shaping southern forests and grasslands. Longleaf pine is the premier example of a native Mississippi ecosystem adapted to fire.  It is also a relict landscape, having been largely replaced with loblolly pine.  At one time, longleaf pine forests covered 90 million acres across the Southeast, but now only scattered remnants totaling 3 million acres remain.  Most are privately owned.    Read More »

As stewards of the nation’s forestlands and the waters flowing from them, forest landowners have a responsibility to protect our natural resources.
The federal Clean Water Act of 1987 requires proper steps be taken to prevent pollution. Using “best management practices” can control pollution resulting from soil erosion. Best Management Practices, commonly referred to as BMPs, are any practices used to reduce water pollution.

Mississippi Forestry Commission Publication 104 1 Revised May 2007

Read More »


GreenTrees. In addition to planting over 4 million trees with 6 million more to be planted in the next few years as part of the NS contract, C2I has done more to change policy than anyone in recent years. For example, in 2008 we got CP31, 23, 23A and 37 incentives changed. The increased incentives announced in this Notice for CP 31, CP23A, CP23 and CP37 (Continuous CRP) are:
A. A one-time Signing Incentive Payment of $100/Acre.
B. A Practice Incentive Payment totaling 40% of the FSA-authorized establishment (tree planting) costs.
C. An additional 20% increase in the per acre soil rental rate paid each year of the contract.


By: Jay Braunscheidel
"More family woodlands will change hands and be sub-divided in the next 10 years than at any point in America’s history." That fact struck me as I was reviewing the newly revised estate planning resource available from the USDA Forest Service entitled: "Estate Planning for Forest Landowners: What will become of your Timberland?" Read More »


By: Brenda Lind
FOR DECADES, CONSERVATION easements have protected open space values such as wildlife habitat, ecologi- cal diversity, recreational access and aesthetics. Working forest landscapes present an opportunity to protect not only these open space values, but also the economic and community benefits that arise from a forest’s production of goods and services. Read More »



A message from the North Carolina State Forester in December 11, 2002, James W. Garner, still prescient today.  Read More »


By: Jon E. Barry

Professional forest management can provide tremendous benefits to landowners. Landowners have the opportunity to produce income from timber sales, develop better wildlife habitat, enjoy more hunting opportunities and provide a better environment for all of us by protecting soil and water resources. Unfortunately, far too few landowners realize that they can have these benefits. As a result, much of the privately owned forestland in Arkansas is not actively managed. Many of the potential benefits to the landowners and to society are being lost.

 

Read More »


By: T.J. McEvoy
Almost everyone in forestry has heard of land trusts since they have become a common fixture especially in areas that are rapidly urbanizing. But the unfortunate perception of many forest and farm owners is that land trusts are not to be trusted because their real purpose is to steal private property and pull lands out of production. Nothing could be further from the truth, but critics rely on false ‘private property’ threats to turn land owners away from land trusts even before owners understand how they work. A forest owner who knows how land trusts operate is more inclined to protect lands from development than owners who know little about this highly innovated to protect forest lands from development. Read More »


By: Amos Eno

Recently I made a presentation to the Society of American Foresters (SAF) at their annual conference. My overall theme was that working forests, not wilderness areas and parks, are the prospective foundations of our prosperity in the 21st century. Professional foresters are well aware of this point. The challenge is convincing urban America and policymakers of the urgent need to reverse an overburden of regulation and wilderness designations that has turned once glorious forests into tinder kegs of off-limits timber.

Read More »


By: K Gregg Elliott
In the world of forest carbon offsets, it’s absolutely essential to understand seven general terms with very precise meanings.  

• real
• additional
• permanent
• verifiable
• quantifiable
• leakage
• reversal

These concepts apply to all offset projects, but each type of project has its own methodology for calculating offsets.  In the case of California’s Cap & Trade program, which allows qualified forest carbon offsets from anywhere in the U.S., projects may consist of reforestation, improved forest management, and avoided conversion (i.e. easements).  No matter what the type of forest offset project, this simple ”improved forest management” example serves to demonstrate how these important concepts apply.

Read More »


By: K Gregg Elliott
The first U.S. market for forest carbon offset projects implemented anywhere in the U.S. will open in 2012.  The state of California, as in so many things, is poised for a for a first. Under its Global Warming Solutions Act, known as AB32, the Golden State will establish the nation’s first compliance carbon market to allow forest carbon offsets. California’s carbon market, which opened in January 2012, will be the second largest in the world, after the European Union, and the largest in North America. New England’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, is currently North America’s only compliance market for carbon emissions but does not allow forest carbon offsets.

Read More »



Dovetail Partners, Inc. has created an interactive map of organizations that provide resources, information, and assistance for people interested in planting trees. Each organization offers opportunities to get involved, whether it’s planting trees or making donations for trees and seeds. Click here. 
It’s no secret that planting a tree is one of the best actions that you can take to improve and protect the environment. What you may not know, however, is that there are already hundreds of programs and efforts dedicated towards planting trees. By planting trees, we can improve air quality, harbor wildlife, and reduce carbon emissions that affect our climate. 



By: Forest Trends



By: Gary R. Herbert and John Hickenlooper
Read More »