The Central Hardwood Region is one of the largest forested areas in the country, covering more than 220 million acres, located largely in the central Midwest, northern South, southern Great Lakes, and western mid-Atlantic region.  It comprises a variety of forest ecosystems, most notably upland oak-hickory and oak-pine forests, oak and pine savannas, old-growth hardwood and pine forests, and bottomland hardwood forests along the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi Rivers. These ecosystems are habitats for many neotropical migrant birds and the threatened Indiana bat. 

The Central Hardwoods Research Work Unit is located on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia and at the Sinkin Experimental Forest on the Mark Twain National Forest. It brings together a multidisciplinary team of natural resource professionals to examine the problems of its region at all levels, from the individual organism and species to the landscape level. These problems fall into three general categories: silviculture, wildlife, and landscape.

Researchers in the Central Hardwoods Unit focus on

• Silviculture - Innovative silvicultural methods to produce composition and structure needed for conserving biodiversity and providing habitat, products, and other ecological services to benefit society.
• Wildlife - Land managers, planners, and owners need information on how local and landscape factors affect the demographics and viability of selected wildlife species.
• Landscape - Land managers, planners, and owners need new knowledge and new modeling tools to assess the effects of alternative land management practices and natural disturbances on a range of human and ecological benefits.