Forest community characteristics on six forest stands in northeastern Mississippi were investigated. Study sites included two cottonwood stands, two managed hardwood stands, and two unmanaged hardwood stands. Relationships between forest stand components and habitat characteristics were estimated. Measured forest stand characteristics included regeneration, midstory and overstory to estimate species composition and forest structure. Basal area, crown density, standing dead trees and fallen dead tree measurements were also taken in the fall of 2010. A higher amount of tree species in the cottonwood and managed hardwood stands with the unmanaged hardwood stands having the lowest number of tree species. It was also detected that the unmanaged hardwood stands contained a higher DBH of 29.0 cm than the remaining stands. Cottonwood stands had a higher tree per hectare than the other stands. The unmanaged hardwood stands also contained the largest amount of standing and fallen dead trees.