The Ozark-St. Francis National Forest, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Arkansas Foresrry Commission, private landowners, and others are currently engaged in a collaborative project to restore rhe oak-hickory and pine-oak ecosystems of the Ozark Highlands on 60,000 acres of the Big Piney Ranger District. Frequent historical fires and native grazers (e.g., elk and bison) maintained an open canopy of woodlands and savannas, where oaks, hickories, and shortleaf pine dominated. Today, these former woodlands now contain 'forest-like' closed canopies (dominated by oak-hickory, oak-shortleaf pine, and shortleaf pine) caused by changes in land use practices, including fire suppression, domestic livestock grazing, and silviculture. Historic records indicate that pre-European settlement Ozark woodlands averaged 38-76 trees per acre. Current densities average 300-1,000 stems per acre. Oak decline and the red oak borer have affected at least 300,000 acres of the Ozark National Forest and about 1.5 million acres of the Ozark Highlands. The Big Piney Ranger District is implementing a long-term, landscape-scale ecosystem restoration project in a TNC conservation priority area. Specific project activities include the application of periodic prescribed fire and thinning by commercial and noncommercial methods. The goals of these activities are to improve forest health, restore fire-dependent woodland ecosystems, and provide for safety by reducing hazardous fuels in the wildland/urban interface. A comprehensive monitoring program, documenting ecosystcm responses to prescribed fire and woodland thinning treatments is currently being implemented. The monitoring program includes tracking changes in overstory, understory, and herbaceous plant species, the structure of plant communities, fuel loads, nonnative invasive species, and breeding and wintering bird communities.