Mission Statement

The MeadWestvaco Wildlife and Ecosystem Research Forest is intended to serve as a living laboratory to study the interactions of modern industrial forestry with the whole of the ecosystem and its ecological processes within the Appalachian landscape.

Overview

The Research Steering Committee has played a key role in developing the MeadWestvaco Wildlife and Ecosystem Research Forest from its beginnings in 1994 to the living laboratory and learning center it is today. Research activities are overseen by the Research Steering Committee composed of representatives from the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, The Nature Conservancy, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Ruffed Grouse Society, the United States Forest Service's Northeast Research Station, West Virginia University, Virginia Tech, West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, and MeadWestvaco Corporation. Emphasis is placed on post-graduate education, expected thesis or dissertation preparation, and the strong likelihood of results appearing in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Some research has been funded entirely by MeadWestvaco, although the primary model has been joint funding cooperatives by MeadWestvaco and other interested parties. For example, the USFS Northeast Research Station's Fernow Experimental Forest in nearby Parsons, West Virginia, teamed with MeadWestvaco in a Joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This MOU establishes a framework for collaboration among the MWERF, the Fernow, and the Monongahela National Forest to work together and with other parties to study the interactions of forest management activities on ecological processes and ecosystem function in managed and unmanaged forest communities in the Appalachian region by linking research efforts whenever possible in terms of funding opportunities, subject matter, and study site provisions. Already, this partnership is cooperating on oak regeneration research, brook trout habitat study, and survey work for the endangered Indiana bat. In some cases, outside researchers with extramural funding utilize the MWERF for a study site or study replicate. In these cases, MeadWestvaco provides in-kind support in the form of access to a fully equipped field station, logistic support, mapping and other technical assistance.

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