Forest's Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project
The Missouri Pine-Oak Woodlands Restoration Project began in 2012 and includes the following Mark Twain National Forest vegetation management areas: Bartlett, Cane Ridge, Fremont, Handy, Northeast Corner, Pineknot, Pineknot East, Possum Trot, and Van Buren
Project Timeframe: 2012 - 2026
Project Goal: Restore fire-adapted pine and pine-oak bluestem woodlands utilizing
- mechanical thinning,
- prescribed fire, and
- non-native invasive species (NNIS) control
to approximate the range of historical conditions for pine-oak woodlands.
Total Project Area: 444,088 acres
- 127,008 acres of U.S Forest Service system land
- 317,080 acres of Non- U.S. Forest Service system land
A map showing the boundaries of the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program on the Mark Twain National Forest. On the Poplar Bluff Ranger District the project, outlined in black, is entirely within the district boundary. The area near the Doniphan/Eleven Point Ranger District includes National Forest Service System land, along with National park service Ozark Scenic Riverways areas, Missouri Department of Conservation land, The Nature Conservancy land, and L-A-D Foundation/Pioneer For
(USDA Forest Service)Project Partners: This project has the support of dozens of partners and government agencies. Missouri’s restoration is part of a roughly one million acres natural communities’ restoration targeted for Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma on public lands.
Economic Benefit: An economic study found that Missouri’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project is expected to
- support an average of 138 jobs per year, and
- generate $34 million in labor income.
$44 million in value is expected to be added to the local 9-county economy from 2012 to 2019.
Projects Completed to date:
- 23,571 acres of commercial timber harvest,
- 36,053 acres of non-commercial mechanical treatment, and
- 153,850 acres of prescribed fire.
The project has had a cumulative treatment footprint of 138,224 acres.
A total of 59,624 acres have received both mechanical overstory treatments, at least two prescribed fires, and are considered structurally restored to open or closed woodland conditions.
Project Benefits
Much of the work restoring shortleaf pine woodlands will directly benefit native wildlife and plant species important to establishing and maintaining a healthy, diverse natural community.
Birds that once occupied these areas include Bachman’s sparrow, brown-headed nuthatch and red cockaded woodpecker.
Plants that should return include bluestem grasses, butterfly weed, toadflax, horsemint, prairie clover, blazing star, goldenrod and many others.The goal is to have an open, park-like shortleaf pine woods with mature trees in a wide range of sizes. There would also be undergrowth and plants that would have been found when Lewis and Clark documented their first travels through Missouri in the mid-1800’s.
Economic Study
An economic study on Mark Twain National Forest’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project was recently completed by University of Missouri researchers.
Community Health Index Study
The study was released in 2024. Gathering monitoring efforts and looking at them through an overall community health lens demonstrated the effectiveness of restoration efforts with the Missouri Pine-Oak Woodlands Restoration area.
Project Background
In early 2012, the Forest had 100,000 acres on Eleven Point and Poplar Bluff ranger districts selected as one of the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration projects. This collaborative project includes multiple landowners and partners in the restoration of shortleaf pine-oak woodland areas.
Approximately 6 million acres of shortleaf pine-oak woodland once covered Missouri’s Ozarks. As European settlers expanded westward, shortleaf pine was harvested to support new settlements. Plants and animals, dependent on pine woodlands, disappeared.
As part of Mark Twain National Forest’s continuing effort to restore Missouri’s natural communities, the USDA Forest Service agency’s 2005 Forest Plan identified portions of the Forest to restore the original shortleaf pine-oak woodlands areas.
Restoration and the Land and Resource Management Plan
Restoration of natural communities can occur on approximately 29% of Mark Twain National Forest’s 1.6 million acres, as outlined in Mark Twain National Forest’s 2005 Land and Resource Management Plan. The Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project is consistent with Mark Twain National Forest’s 2005 Land and Resource Management Plan where natural community restoration emphasizes ecological, economic and social sustainability.
Restoration efforts have been underway in Mark Twain National Forest’s southern portion for the past 10 years using restoration thinning and prescribed fire.
Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Projects
Mark Twain National Forest’s 10-year Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project will focus on using a combination of appropriate silvicultural and prescribed fire treatments to provide the structure, composition and function of natural communities.
Prescribed burning applied under specific environmental conditions emulate historical natural fire regimes. Fire is applied taking into consideration fire risk, smoke management, fuel conditions and air quality.
Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program
Under Title IV of Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, Congress established the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) to encourage restoration of priority forest landscapes.