Dr. David S. Buckley, Associate Professor
Dr. Jennifer A. Franklin, Assistant Professor
Agricultural Experiment Station
Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries

Dr. Jennifer Franklin, Assistant Professor, and Dr. David Buckley, Associate Professor, at the University of Tennessee, Agriculture Experiment Station, are currently working as a team investigating techniques for re-establishing native tree species and native ground covers on reclaimed contour mine sites in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee.

    By combining their expertise in plant physiology, ecophysiology, plant ecology, and regeneration silviculture, Dr. Franklin and Dr. Buckley are interested in revealing mechanisms underlying the growth and survival of outplanted tree seedlings, including positive and negative interactions between planted trees, native ground cover species and wildlife. Relationships between measured light, soil moisture, soil physical and chemical properties, natural adaptations of trees, and growth and survival of re-established native trees are of particular interest.

    Additional interests include investigating the use of high-quality tree seedlings grown from local seed sources to expedite the recovery of the forests that once occupied these sites, and monitoring levels of below-ground production of roots and of root function achieved with different mixtures of native trees and herbs.

For more information about surface mine reforestation research in Tennessee, please contact:

Dr. David Buckley
Associate Professor
University of Tennessee
Agriculture Experiment Station
Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries  
274 Ellington Plant Sciences Building
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
Telephone: (865) 974-7978
E-mail: dbuckley@utk.edu
UT Bio: http://fwf.ag.utk.edu/personnel/dbuckley.htm

Dr. Jennifer Franklin
Assistant Professor
University of Tennessee
Agriculture Experiment Station
Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries  
274 Ellington Plant Sciences Building
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-4563
Telephone: (865)974-2724
E-mail: jafranklin@utk.edu
UT Bio: http://fwf.ag.utk.edu/personnel/jfranklin.htm