Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment (HEE)
In cooperation with Ball State University, Indiana University, and Indiana State University, the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University is creating a long-term field experiment on forest management, centered in the beginning at Morgan-Monroe State Forest. Additional collaborators are state government, the USDA Forest Service, and The Nature Conservancy. This project aims to determine the ecological and social impacts of long-term forest management on public and private lands in Indiana and the Central Hardwoods Region.
The idea is to create a series of study areas in which common forest management techniques will be used, and then study how a wide variety of organisms respond. The forest management techniques will include small clearcuts, single tree or small group selection cuts, and “no management” controls.