Silviculture is the science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, and health of forests and woodlands. Forest Service scientists study even-aged, uneven-aged, two-aged management, and other hybrid management systems to better understand how our agency and other forest managers and owners can sustainably manage the Nation’s forests and woodlands.

Most silvicultural research in North America is based on 20th century conditions and is being updated to account for 21st century conditions with respect to climate, fire frequency and intensity, herbivory, invasive species, atmospheric deposition, and other factors that alter outcomes of prescriptions and management actions. Forest Service researchers in silviculture partner with other federal and state agencies, universities, tribes, non-governmental organizations, and industry to address the wide spectrum of issues facing forest managers and owners today.

Featured Work

The Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) project is a collaborative effort among the Forest Service, Colorado State University, and other partners across North America investigating adaptation approaches for silvicultural systems under changing climatic conditions.

Southeastern Hardwood Silviculture Research focuses on characterizing and quantifying the response of upland hardwood forest systems across the South to both natural and silvicultural (planned) disturbances, stand dynamics, site classification, fire ecology, invasive plants, climate change and carbon storage, and American chestnut restoration.

Saving Eastern Oak Forests: Prescribed Fire Impact on Timber Quality: scientists, foresters, and ecologists are collaborating to assess timber quality by inventorying trees across multiple national forests that have varied prescribed fire histories.

Reshaping Great Lakes pine forests: Adapting to drought and climate change describes how resilience can be achieved through emulating historical disturbance patterns, such as with recurring prescribed fire or the use of silvicultural techniques. 

Balancing timber production and deer forage in young-growth silviculture in southeast Alaska provide a scientifically rigorous basis for adaptive management of these young-growth forests. These include the geographically extensive Tongass-Wide Young-Growth Studies (TWYGS), and Prince of Wales Commercial Thinning Study (POW-CT), and a study of subcanopy snow and slash patterns by treatment age.