The Hardwood Forestry Fund has awarded funding to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources-Division of Forestry for the Morgan-Monroe project to create an educational site for teaching how to improve an otherwise degraded stand of unproductive species to producing high quality hardwoods.

Morgan-Monroe State Forest encompasses more than 24,000 acres in Morgan and Monroe counties in south central Indiana. The forest land has many steep ridges and valleys, and is forested with some of the state's finest hardwoods.

The site was an old field 60 years ago and had been planted in pine. Through funding and collaboration with the HFF and other partners, the Department of Forestry will plant oak trees, thereby taking a productive site that had been trending toward non valuable hardwood species and changing the future stand quality to oak.

More information about the Morgan-Monroe State Forest can be found at https://www.in.gov/dnr/forestry/4816.htm.