Duke Forest is a forest managed by Duke University for research, teaching, and recreation. It is located in the edge of the Piedmont (United States) in Durham County, Orange County, and Alamance County in North Carolina. Four of its six divisions lie within the triangle formed by Durham, Chapel Hill, and Hillsborough.
The 7,060 acres (2,860 ha) Duke Forest is made up of six divisions which are fully accessible for teaching and research. Numerous forest types and ecosystems, soils, and previous land uses are represented on the forest. It is a resource unparalleled by any other university for its size, accessibility, length of management, and accumulation of long-term data (since 1931).[ citation needed ]
Like much of the North Carolina Piedmont, the forest was farmed for cotton. After about a century of such management, the soils' native fertility was exhausted, and could no longer create the yields necessary to support farmers. Then, in 1929, the Great Depression began. Land was abandoned and secondary succession began. Pioneer species such as loblolly pine, yellow poplar, and sweetgum quickly colonized these abandoned farm fields. These trees now dominate much of the forest.
Some parts are dominated by oak and hickory trees. These correspond to old woodlots between fields. Many of these stands were never cleared for agriculture. Thus, these stands bear the closest resemblance to precolonial conditions.
From inception, Duke Forest's priorities have been research and teaching. The Forest initially supported the teaching and research activities of the newly created Duke School of Forestry. Limited areas are logged each year, providing revenue to support forest management, but also for each generation of Forestry students to study the patterns and timing of succession after different logging treatments. Activities in the forest have now broadened to include botany, zoology, soil science, geography, and many other fields, in addition to the forestry and environmental science activities of the present-day version of the Duke School of Forestry, the Nicholas School of the Environment. The Duke University Lemur Center is located in Duke Forest, off Erwin Road.
The forest is visited every year by thousands of students from local schools and universities, and many other universities and organizations throughout the nation. Research data and records are made available for use elsewhere, as well as at Duke.
The Duke Forest has many roads and trails through some of the most scenic areas near Duke University, through woods with streams, flowers, and wildlife. Limited public access, including biking, hiking, and horseback riding, is allowed on established forest roads as long as it does not conflict with research and teaching activities. It also serves as home to the many runners on Duke's cross country running teams.
36°00′N79°01′W / 36.000°N 79.017°W
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Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used narrowly to describe the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard. In common usage, however, the term may cover a range of forestry or silviculture activities.
Orange County is a county located in the Piedmont region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 148,696. Its county seat is Hillsborough.
Burlington is a city in Alamance and Guilford counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the principal city of the Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Alamance County, in which most of the city is located, and is a part of the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point, NC Combined Statistical Area. The population was 57,303 at the 2020 census, which makes Burlington the 18th-most populous city in North Carolina.
Mebane is a city located mostly in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States, and partly in Orange County. The town was named for Alexander Mebane, an American Revolutionary War general and member of the U.S. Congress. It was incorporated as "Mebanesville" in 1881, and in 1883 the name was changed to "Mebane". It was incorporated as a city in 1987. The population as of the 2020 census was 17,768. Mebane is one of the fastest-growing municipalities in North Carolina. Mebane straddles the Research Triangle and Piedmont Triad Regions of North Carolina. The bulk of the city is in Alamance County, which comprises the Burlington Metropolitan Statistical Area, itself a component of the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point Combined Statistical Area. Two slivers in the eastern portion of the city are in Orange County, which is part of the Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area, itself a component of the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Combined Statistical Area.
The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Anchored by the cities of Raleigh and Durham and the town of Chapel Hill, the region is home to three major research universities: North Carolina State University, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, respectively. The "Triangle" name originated in the 1950s with the creation of Research Triangle Park located between the three anchor cities, which is the largest research park in the United States and home to numerous high tech companies.
The Piedmont Triad is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of North Carolina anchored by three cities: Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point. This close group of cities lies in the Piedmont geographical region of the United States and forms the basis of the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point, NC Combined Statistical Area. As of 2012, the Piedmont Triad has an estimated population of 1,611,243 making it the 33rd largest combined statistical area in the United States.
Beijing Forestry University is a public university located in Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education, and co-sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, and the Beijing Municipal People's Government. The university is part of Project 211 and the Double First-Class Construction.
An old-growth forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines primary forests as naturally regenerated forests of native tree species where there are no clearly visible indications of human activity and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed. One-third of the world's forests are primary forests. Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitats that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem. Virgin or first-growth forests are old-growth forests that have never been logged. The concept of diverse tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters, and diverse tree species and classes and sizes of woody debris.
Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters to create certain types of forest ecosystems and to promote select species that require an abundance of sunlight or grow in large, even-age stands. Logging companies and forest-worker unions in some countries support the practice for scientific, safety and economic reasons, while detractors consider it a form of deforestation that destroys natural habitats and contributes to climate change. Environmentalists, traditional owners, local residents and others have regularly campaigned against clearcutting, including through the use of blockades and nonviolent direct action.
Bernhard Eduard Fernow was the third chief of the USDA's Division of Forestry of the United States from 1886 to 1898, preceding Gifford Pinchot in that position, and laying much of the groundwork for the establishment of the United States Forest Service in 1905. Fernow's philosophy toward forest management may be traced to Heinrich Cotta's preface to Anweisung zum Waldbau or Linnaeus' ideas on the "economy of nature." Fernow has been called the "father of professional forestry in the United States."
Articles on forestry topics include:.
The Nicholas School of the Environment is one of ten graduate and professional schools at Duke University and is headquartered on Duke’s main campus in Durham, N.C. A secondary coastal facility, Duke University Marine Laboratory, is maintained in Beaufort, North Carolina. The Nicholas School is composed of three research divisions: Earth and Climate Sciences, Environmental Sciences and Policy, and Marine Science and Conservation. The current dean of the Nicholas School is Toddi Steelman.
North Carolina's 4th congressional district is located in the central region of the state. The district includes all of Alamance County, Durham County, Granville County, Orange County, and Person County, as well as a portion of Caswell County. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of D+16, it is the most Democratic district in North Carolina.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and guide to forestry:
The golden-crowned sifaka or Tattersall's sifaka is a medium-sized lemur characterized by mostly white fur, prominent furry ears, and a golden-orange crown. It is one of the smallest sifakas, weighing around 3.5 kg (7.7 lb) and measuring approximately 90 cm (35 in) from head to tail. Like all sifakas, it is a vertical clinger and leaper, and its diet includes mostly seeds and leaves. The golden-crowned sifaka is named after its discoverer, Ian Tattersall, who first spotted the species in 1974. However, it was not formally described until 1988, after a research team led by Elwyn L. Simons observed and captured some specimens for captive breeding. The golden-crowned sifaka most closely resembles the western forest sifakas of the P. verreauxi group, yet its karyotype suggests a closer relationship with the P. diadema group of eastern forest sifakas. Despite the similarities with both groups, more recent studies of its karyotype support its classification as a distinct species.
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is a sustainability organization operating in the U.S. and Canada that works across four pillars: standards, conservation, community, and education. SFI was founded in 1994 by the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA). SFI is the world's largest single forest certification standard by area. SFI is headquartered in Ottawa and Washington, D.C.
Carl Alwin Schenck was a German forester and pioneering forestry educator. When Schenck came to the United States to work for George W. Vanderbilt at the Biltmore Estate, he became the third formally trained forester in the United States. He established and operated the Biltmore Forest School, the first forestry school in North America, on Vanderbilt's property.
The Biltmore Forest School was the first school of forestry in North America. Carl A. Schenck founded this school of "practical forestry" in 1896 on George W. Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate near Asheville, North Carolina. The school grounds are now part of Pisgah National Forest in Transylvania County, North Carolina, as the Cradle of Forestry in America, a 6,500 acres (2,600 ha) historic site which features exhibits about forestry and forest conservation history.
The Robinson Forest is a research, education, and extension forest owned by the University of Kentucky and managed by the Department of Forestry in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment. The forest covers 14,786 acres (59.84 km2) in Breathitt, Knott and Perry counties in Kentucky's Cumberland Plateau region. The main block of Robinson Forest contains approximately 10,000 contiguous acres while the remaining acreage is found in outlying tracts.
Catherine Keever was an educator and ecologist focused on ecological succession and highland region ecology. Keever proved that moss is the first plant to grow on bald rock, rather than lichens.
