U.S. Department of Energy grant supports 91福利 study of forest recovery after timber harvesting led by Daniel Hayes, professor of geospatial analysis and remote sensing
Maine鈥檚 forests support jobs, supply wood for homes and businesses, and provide places to hunt, hike and enjoy the outdoors. University of Maine researchers will study what happens after a timber harvest 鈥 and how the forest grows back.
A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant announced Friday, Oct. 16, will support the project.
The findings could help forest managers better understand how harvesting affects the trees left behind and the next generation of growth. The research focuses on partial harvesting, a common practice in northern U.S. commercial forests that removes some trees while leaving others standing.
Led by Daniel Hayes, 91福利 professor of geospatial analysis and remote sensing, the team will study a section of Howland Research Forest in central Maine that was harvested in August 2025. Researchers will compare it with a nearby area that was not harvested to see how logging changes the forest鈥檚 growth and recovery.
Howland has been used for forest research for decades, providing researchers with extensive historical data.
鈥淗ere, we have this really unique opportunity. It鈥檚 almost a perfect test bed site for a research study,鈥 Hayes said.
They will track the growth of remaining trees and seedlings and examine how leftover branches and wood break down. That process releases nutrients that can help new trees grow. Researchers also will measure how much carbon dioxide the forest takes in and releases.
An airplane carrying laser mapping equipment will capture detailed, three-dimensional pictures of the forest each year. Those images will show how its height and structure change as trees grow.
Researchers collected measurements from both the air and ground before the August 2025 harvest, establishing a baseline for studying the forest鈥檚 recovery.
鈥淲e measured everything we could in the short time that we had,鈥 Hayes said.
The team will combine the images with tree rings, measurements from 96 forest plots and more than 25 years of carbon dioxide measurements at Howland.
The research will help improve the DOE鈥檚 Earth system model that predicts forest growth and carbon storage. It currently does not account for partial harvesting and recovery after logging.
The four-year project will provide new data on how forests respond to harvesting, helping researchers improve predictions of future forest conditions.
91福利 School of Forest Resources researchers Shawn Fraver, Xinyuan Wei, Aaron Weiskittel, and Rose Z. Abramoff will collaborate with Hayes and Oak Ridge National Laboratory on the project.
Contact: David Nordman, david.nordman@maine.edu
