ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Management
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Oak Ecology and Silviculture: Challenges and InnovationsView all 5 articles
Divergent historical and current forest composition in Kentucky, including Daniel Boone National Forest, United States
Provisionally accepted
- Rocky Mountain Research Station, Forest Service (USDA), Fort Collins, United States
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Outcomes of European colonization encompass surface fire exclusion followed by forestation of open ecosystems and tree densification within forests, with concomitant replacement of fire-tolerant tree species, specifically oaks, by fire-sensitive tree species. In Kentucky, a 10.5 million ha extent of the eastern United States, I compared tree composition between an historical assessment (1907–1909) and modern surveys (2010–2014), including a divergence metric of squared-chord distance, which revealed the same progression. Following time since Euro-American settlement, and associated fire exclusion, historically dominant, fire-tolerant oaks decreased from 52% of all trees to 21% of all trees in Kentucky, while maples increased from 5% to 19% of all trees, which were shared changes for three regions. The Loess Hills region in western Kentucky and the Central Interior, a flat region of historical grasslands, displayed greater tree composition divergence than the Appalachian Mountain region in eastern Kentucky. The least decrease in oaks, at 19 percentage points, but greatest decrease in fire-tolerant shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) at 5.5 percentage points, occurred in the Daniel Boone National Forest, within the Appalachian region. American chestnut (Castanea dentata) decreased by nine percentage points in the Appalachian region, where red maple (Acer rubrum), with trace abundance in the past, became the most abundant tree species at 14% of all trees, with yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) at 12% of all trees. American beech (Fagus grandifolia) decreased by nine percentage points in the Interior region, where eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana), with trace abundance in the past, became the most abundant tree species at 12% of all trees. Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) decreased in the Loess region, where green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) became the most abundant species along with a new addition of planted loblolly pine (Pinus taeda). Kentucky contains a range of ecosystems, which reflected trends common to the eastern U.S., of decreased fire-tolerant species relative to fire-sensitive species following fire exclusion, and trends specific to regions, depending on species distributions.
Keywords: Agriculture, Appalachian, ash, Eastern redcedar, Land Between The Lakes, Maples, oaks, Yellow-poplar
Received: 08 Jul 2025; Accepted: 26 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Hanberry. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Brice B Hanberry
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