A walk through the woods today is very different than 3 or 4 generations ago.   Over 70 years of fire suppression, free range grazing and unsustainable forest management has allowed many forests, woodlands and glades to become overcrowded with trees, develop a heavy presence of fire intolerant species (such as sugar maple) and eliminated much of the herbaceous vegetation growing on the ground.   

Many people believe that our forests are natural and that intervention by humans disrupts the natural process.  However, the woods that we see today are the result of hundreds of years of human intervention.  Native American populations were great in this area and they utilized fire extensively to manage our oak-hickory forests for wildlife.  Early colonizers burned more frequently and cut much of the woods to supply wood to their growing communities.  We have only a handful, if that, of virgin forest left in the state.  The rest has been cut over many times by humans.

Today, we are learning the negative consequences of almost two centuries of poor forest management choices.  We have realized that wildlife do not favor much of the forests that we have today and prefer forests where disturbances are frequent and sometimes great.   Today, people love their forests to death by protecting them and not doing any management.  Disturbances provide an influx of energy to the ecosystem that stimulates growth, activity and health.

We are working to restore our forests to a healthy state by restoring fire, thinning woods that are overcrowded, removing unhealthy trees in areas where there is an over-abundance of them due to previous management and restoring native plants in areas where they no longer naturally occur.  Sometimes these activities are simple, sometimes they are not.  

We are also learning that 100 acres of woods can contain many different types of habitat, but without management those habitats are less common and less attractive to wildlife.

To learn more about forest management in Missouri, visit the Missouri Department of Conservation Forestry Division web page at http://mdc4.mdc.mo.gov/applications/MDCLibrary/MDCLibrary2.aspx?NodeID=174.

The primary challenges in the Missouri River Hills Conservation Opportunity Area will be to find sufficient funding to manage and restore forest, glade and woodland habitats. Equally important is to educate landowners about sustainable forest management practices and keep this large block of contiguous forest land relatively intact as development and urbanization moves into this landscape.

Exotic species such as the bush and Japanese honeysuckle, autumn olive, garlic mustard and Sericea lespedeza are spreading throughout the COA.  These non-native exotic species out-compete native flora thereby reducing the quality of habitats and abundance of food available to wildlife.  Eradicating established populations of these species can be very expensive.  It is important that we work to prevent their spread by locating and eradicating any small populations that occur and to work on eradicating large established populations.