The current official mission of the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest is to support research on forests, streams, and watersheds, and to foster strong collaboration among ecosystem science, education, natural resource management, and the humanities. Through 1970s, the site was part of the International Biological Programme-Coniferous Forest Biome, and in 1976 it was designated a Biosphere Reserve as part of the United Nations' Man and the Biosphere Program. In 1948, the site was established as an experimental forest by the US Forest Service and in 1980 the site became a charter member of the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research Program.
History
Andrews Forest was named for Horace Justin Andrews, a forester. The history of the research program at the Andrews Forest has been diverse, with the dominant themes changing over time. Research emphasis in the 1950s and 1960s concerned effects of forest management on streamflow, soil erosion, and water quality. During the International Biological Program of the 1970s, basic studies centered on the workings of the forest and stream ecosystems, especially in old-growth forests. In the 1980s, these basic studies continued under LTER and were augmented with applied research in silviculture, wildlife, landscape ecology, carbon dynamics, and other topics. Conflict over federal forestry in the 1990s focused attention on old-growth, spotted owl, and landscape ecology. With growing concern about climate change in the 2000s, analysis of long-term records and effects of mountain topography on ecosystem response to climate variability took center stage.
Research
The Andrews Forest Program has many components and is supported by a variety of grants, contracts and private donors. Research within the LTER program since the 1990s is concerned with how land use, natural disturbances, and climate affect carbon and nutrient dynamics, biodiversity, and hydrology. More current research focuses on the roles of topography on interactions among drivers and responders, including feedback responses, and on how the highly diverse topography of the Andrews Forest may influence ecosystem responses to potential climate change. In addition Andrews Forest researchers are expanding inquiry to consider the Andrews Forest as part of a coupled natural/human system.
The Andrews Forest Program includes a very broad spectrum of outreach activities with multiple objectives and funding sources. The Education program provides an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate classes from regional and international schools to visit the forest for field courses, study tours and research experiences. Innovative K-12 programs give teachers the experience and skills to lead authentic research projects with their students, and middle school students the unique opportunity to study the forest on the ground and in the canopy. The Andrews Forest is recognized as a leader in developing research-management partnerships in which insights and information flow in both directions, projects are undertaken jointly to development the scientific basis for addressing land management challenges, and broad communication of key findings is a priority. The Andrews Forest recognizes that science is but one way of knowing and actively promotes arts and humanities inquiry into the nature of forests, streams and selves through the LTEReflections program.
LTEReflections
Since 2002, the Andrews Forest has engaged poets, essayists, philosophers, religious scholars – in the Long-Term Ecological Reflections program jointly sponsored by the Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station and the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word in the School of Religion, Philosophy, and History at Oregon State University. Raw data and published works of more than 40 writers in residence are posted on The Forest Log. This work is part of a larger effort to encourage arts-humanities-environmental science collaboration across a network of about 20 sites and programs characterized by long-term, place-based work that collects, archives and actively disseminates the work of artists, scientists, and creative writers of many persuasions.
