Tyler S. Harris

NASA's Stennis Space Center (SSC) is located in Hancock County in southwestern Mississippi, east of the Pearl River and just north of interstate highway I-10. SSC is a space shuttle booster rocket testing and research base comprised of 6,462 ha acres with about 3,823 ha designated as controlled access areas for test facilities, laboratories, offices, and other operational facilities. The remaining 2,639 ha are primarily forested land within the large acoustical easement area that surrounds the rocket booster testing facility. No hunting is allowed on the base, so there has been concern...

The Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) has undergone widespread loss of bottomland hardwood forests due to agricultural conversion. Hardwood establishment on marginal croplands has been proposed to mitigate effects of deforestation and related loss of carbon-capture potential. These reforestation areas can provide important wildlife habitat in agriculture-dominated landscapes; however, concern with reforestation is low seedling survival due to herbivory and vegetation competition. We surveyed reforested fields in the MAV of northwest Mississippi to assess survival of 10 species of hardwood...