The proposed session will synthesize the perception and treatment of the early post-disturbance stage of forest succession as it pertains to the ecology and the conservation and management goals in temperate forests, and provide direction for future work in this arena. The proposed symposium builds off of a recently published (2011) book on early-successional habitat in the Southeastern U.S. (“Sustaining Young Forest Communities”) and dialogue in recent issues (2011) of ESA’s Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment regarding western U.S. and eastern U.S. viewpoints on early-successional forest ecosystems. The proposed session will begin with (1) a synthesis of succession models from temperate forest systems; ecoregional differences and similarities of the models will be presented, with an emphasis on the early-successional stage and its role in succession. This will be followed by (2) contributions on the value (e.g., biodiversity, ecosystem services, monetary) of early successional habitats in temperate forest systems. These values, which are tied to the conference themes of preservation or sustainable utilization, logically set the stage for a (3) review of how early-successional phases have been and can be ‘treated,’ spatially and temporally, to achieve conservation and management goals. This will include discussion of acceleration and deceleration of forest successional development. Current case studies are included to accentuate these topics, and to offer insights on the conservation importance of the post-disturbance phase in temperate forests.