Mapping landtypes across public and private landscapes encourages shared stewardship by providing owners or managers consistent tools for delineating forest management units, preparing management plans, managing for oak restoration, defining silvicultural prescriptions, assessing productivity, predicting species assemblages, and designing research and monitoring studies.

Northern Research Station (NRS) scientists used data derived from hundreds of field plots in conjunction with high resolution digital elevation data to map 15 landtypes for a 17-county region of southeastern Ohio. Scientists also prepared a document describing the ecological, geological, climatological, and topographical attributes of each landtype and each of five subsections within Section 221E, the Southern Unglaciated Allegheny Plateau Section of the Eastern Broadleaf Forest Province. This effort extends work conducted earlier on the Wayne National Forest by utilizing an all-lands approach to benefit both private and public land owners. The project was catalyzed by a USDA Joint Chiefs’ Restoration Partnership and carried out on behalf of the Ohio Interagency Forestry Team, a group representing many federal, state, and university partners working on forestry issues in the state. The resulting document and map, Research Map NRS-10 (RMAP), is a foundational document for cross-jurisdictional management using shared stewardship approaches. Authorities vested in agencies now allow for landscape-level approaches to management, regardless of ownership. “Wall-to-wall” mapping, like that described here, is needed to facilitate such management, including managing for oak restoration, an increasingly important need in the east-central United States. The document and mapped landtypes also provide a basis for assessing productivity, predicting species assemblages, and designing research or monitoring projects. The RMAP should be helpful for both public and private persons interested in southeastern Ohio, but also as an example for persons interested in promoting shared stewardship approaches anywhere in the nation.