The Young Forest Initiative offers stories and news about early successional habitat and young forest management from local and national publications and our partners.
Listening for the whip-poor-will in spring As the whip-poor-will's chant wanes, our cultural loss deepens The population of whip-poor-wills, which breed and find insect prey in and near young forest and shrubland, decreased by nearly 70 percent between 1970 and 2014.
National Forest in North Carolina to create young forest habitat Healthier forests mean cleaner water and better habitat for everything from salamanders to bats Strategically harvesting trees and planting other native trees preferred by wildlife are part of an 800-acre management project planned for a national forest in North Carolina.
New England cottontails flourish on a Massachusetts island It’s a Bunny Paradise Biologists released 13 rare New England cottontails on Noman’s Land Island in 2019. Now, around 400 of the rabbits roam the 600-acre island off the Massachusetts coast.
Controlled burns for private lands? Study finds landowners are open to prescribed burns Research by Penn State scientists suggests that owners of private lands are open to using prescribed burns to manage their forested acres.
New addition to Great Thicket National Wildlife Refuge The land will help nurture at-risk and priority species Established in 2016, Great Thicket is something of an avant-garde refuge. Rather than protecting land in a single location, the Service will acquire up to 15,000 acres of shrubland and young forest habitat from willing landowners across focal areas in New York and New England.
