Overview

The Center For Hardwood Ecology is an intercollegiate unit with the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences (Department of Forest Resources) and College of Biological Sciences (Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior). The founder of the center, Lee E. Frelich, is the current director and is appointed by the two college deans. Margaret B. Davis (Regents Professor of Ecology, retired), and Peter B. Reich (Regents Professor, Distingushied McKnight University Professor, and F.B. Hubachek, Sr. Chair in Forest Ecology) are the co-founders of the center. The center is funded by a permanent endowment with the University of Minnesota Foundation, and by grants.

The mission of the Center for Hardwood Ecology is "To locate, protect, and study a very rare ecosystem: old-growth hardwood forests in the Midwest and eastern U.S., to use the knowledge gained from old-growth ecosystems to restore second growth forests and forests that have been converted to other uses, and to bridge the gaps between science, conservation, and management in hardwood forests." The center meets the mission statement through three goals:

Fund a comprehensive research program aimed at producing the knowledge we need to save, manage, and perpetuate the remnants of an endangered ecosystem--old growth hardwood forests in the Midwest and eastern U.S.
Hardwood forest ecosystems have been tremendously altered by intentional management and inadvertent human influences on ecosystem processes. Means for renewing hardwood forests and maintaining them into the future will be developed through study of old-growth forest remnants, second-growth forest and managed stands. Major problems such as fragmentation, fire suppression, increased browsing by deer, invasion by exotic species, and potential climate change, threaten the existence of these rare ecosystems and limit the potential for their renewed regeneration and restoration. Faculty and student research at CFHE is designed to solve major problems related to conservation and/or restoration of hardwood forests, while at the same time advancing our basic understanding of ecosystem function and its relationship to the maintenance of biological diversity.

Provide educational opportunities for the best students who are interested in research or management careers in natural resources.
Graduate Research Assistants are funded by the center and carry out most of the research under the supervision of senior researchers on the faculty at the U of MN. Numerous undergraduate students also benefit from part time work as field and lab assistants, which provides them with both income and experience that cannot be gained in the classroom.

Bring the University of MN national and international recognition as a center of excellence in forest ecology.
Forest ecology is now emerging as an important science just as other fields like chemistry and physics did during the early 20th Century. The University of Minnesota has the ability to create a premiere program in forest ecology. The Center for Hardwood Ecology complements the existing research programs in paleoecology and ecology of northern conifer forests.