Category: Research

What’s Alabama’s most valuable asset? Its genes. I don’t mean to be insulting, but I’m not really talking about your genes, or my genes, or the genes of any person you or I know. I’m talking

Some might suspect we are species hounds at Paint Rock Forest Research Center, obsessed with finding new species. Ed Wilson reminded us often that we should be. He wanted us to know every species on the

How is it, when millions of native elms died from a virulent disease all across the county, elms in the South pretty much laughed it off? Dutch elm disease has been catastrophic for American elms trees in

Paint Rock’s elms aren’t supposed to exist. Or at least, they’re supposed to be very unhappy and all near death. But the truth is Alabama’s many species of elms are all about as happy as trees

We’re doing more than any organization our size should be capable of. We’ve gotten it done because of our partners like founding members and UCLA Distinguished Professors Stephen Hubbell and Patty Gowaty. Because of our long

The research at Paint Rock is important to the future of North American forests. But just as important to the future are our young researchers – interns who work to build our scientific infrastructure at Paint

Photographs by Matt Niemiller Ph.D. and Amata Hinkle Text by Bill Finch  The light at the end of the tunnel can sometimes be a bit disappointing, particularly if you spend much time in an Alabama cave.

Samford team turns over a new leaf—or two—at Paint Rock Samford student Madelyn Thompson has for the past few months been working with Chicago’s Morton Arboretum to try to unscramble the hard maples at the Sharp-Bingham

Joe Paull joined us with an invite from Mike Dalen on a beautiful rainy day to see what the Paint Rock Forest Research Center is about and the work of the forest dynamics census. Experienced in

When E.O. Wilson died December 26th, many here may not have recognized how he changed Alabama in the eyes of the world. Those impressed by celebrity will be interested to know that Ed Wilson was likely

John and Kendra Abbott are two very talented photographers, they hold workshops all over the world. They are also entomologists, ecologists, writers, researchers and work at the University of Alabama as Curator of Collections and Research

The Alabama Forestry Commission—Rick Oats, Jason Dockery, Dana Stone and Dan Chappell—visited Paint Rock at the invitation of Cindy Ragland, one of our board of directors. The forest humbled us all. We had lots of questions,

Here’s how science should progress: Bring together the minds and minds-in-training of two great institutions, have them plop down on the cool wet ground of Paint Rock forest, and discuss the future of biology and conservation

A hot day in August these brave folks ventured from the cool offices of Hudson Alpha to the hills of the Sharp Bingham Preserve. The conversations and ideas were intense. There are more discussions coming on

A mystery oak at Paint Rock has flummoxed taxonomists, so the nation’s top oak genome researchers have agreed to help out. But how to get leaves out of a tree 90 feet tall? Bill had to

Steve Apfelbaum brings his great ecological knowledge, experience, and tons of connections to Paint Rock Steve Apfelbaum, the founder of Applied Ecological Services, spent two days with us touring every inch of Paint Rock and discussing

Dr. Anny Chung, a Professor with the department of Plant Biology and Plant Pathology at the University of Georgia brought some top notch soil communities grad students to see the Paint Rock property.

An extraordinary team of student researchers and faculty is making great progress on the census of trees in the Paint Rock Forest research plot. We anticipate they will have to identify, measure, tag and catalogue more