Ames Hardwood Laboratory
The Ames Hardwood Laboratory contains a wide sweep of projects and taken together are developing into a new silvicultural system for hardwood management we are calling Precision Forestry.It is an exciting array where species are matched to site with pedigreed seedlings and the stand developed more reliably with a more predictable portfolio of values. It is tied to the development of Orchards that will perpetuate ever stronger abilities to increase timber production and wildlife needs; but, also, the work can provide better ability to test impacts of global warming on forest health and changing distribution.
Openings ranging from one to three acres are created in the forest to allow planting. 
The same lineages of highly selected seedlings used in the orchards are planted in these openings. 
A planting crew busy establishing a precision forestry plot. Sites are specifically matched to species. This is a bottomland site testing cherrybark oak and willow oak. 
Seedlings are also planted under single-tree openings in the forest to test their ability to persist and put down strong root systems, allowing them to become advance regeneration. 
These seedlings receive no follow-up release treatments and must compete against highly aggressive native plants, including other trees. 
Competition is tough for this northern red oak but it is assuming a free-to-grow crown position. 
In this portion of the study, some species achieved more than 26 feet in total height by age 10. 
These cherrybark and swamp white oaks in excellent condition and everything points to them being in the final stand. 
Professional interest in the project has been high. A group of scientists and forest managers from across the southeast are seeing the research in this picture.