Regenerating oaks in Missouri's bottomlands

Bottomland oaks are valuable timber species that are also important for wildlife, but regenerating them is about as easy as training blackbirds to plant acorns. Missouri once had an estimated 5 million acres of wetlands, much of which were bottomland forests that included some oak. Today, less than 15 percent of those historical wetlands remain in the state. Many landowners and public land managers are interested in restoring oak trees on the bottomlands of Missouri's rivers for wildlife and timber purposes.