Ames Plantation

• Forestry
  • Crop Tree Enhancement
  • Shackelford Seed Orchard
  • Precision Forestry
• Wildlife
  • Quail Research
  • Deer Research
  • Small Mammal Research
  • Wetland Ecology
• Education Programs
• Fire Ants

Forestry and Wildlife Research, Education, and Management Programs at the Ames Plantation

The Ames Plantation provides a rich resource for forest and ecological research due to large land area available and a wide array of sites, ranging from rich and highly dynamic bottomlands to pine ridges. Research projects have examined many different species of wildlife and their interactions. Research has been done on forests. And other projects have examined ecological questions such as the degradation of bottomland forests or concepts of precision forestry as a method to manage forest stands. These and other projects represent science that is unique and dynamic. Graduate students are often in residence at Ames. Some visit for days at a time to accomplish their work. Others stay weeks or perhaps several months at a time, depending on the demands of their projects. Scholars and professionals from around the world often visit Ames to see research or participate in teaching.

The University of Tennessee Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries conducts four weeks of their Forestry Camp at Ames. The silviculture course, taught at Ames, and forming the central concepts of how to reproduce and tend a forest, is taught entirely by the Ames scientist. The students have a chance to get hands-on learning experiences in the 14,500-acre Ames Forest, including a unique look at a historical program that documents past human habitation and the things that they left behind that land managers must heed. They float the Wolf River and have the chance to interface with some of the world’s foremost authorities that travel to Ames to teach these students.

Ames hosts the Teachers Conservation workshop every year. A group of Teachers spend two days of a one week session at Ames as they gain understanding of the complex and dynamic nature of the landscape and human/forest/wildlife interactions. These teachers have the opportunity to get continuing education credit and can also get graduate credit with additional work. Sponsors of this educational activity include the Tennessee Forestry Association, The Lumberman's Educational Foundation, and UT's Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries.

The 18,600-acre Ames Plantation has approximately 3,500 acres of loblolly pine ranging in age from one to 40 years, 2,600 acres of bottomland hardwoods largely associated with the unchannelized North Fork of the Wolf River and 8,500 acres of upland hardwoods. It is a working forest with annual timber sales from the pine and hardwood resource. Site diversity ranges from sandy ridges to rich bottomlands containing some of the region's finest cherrybark red oak stands. Overall, the Plantation's loess soils provide excellent forest productivity.