Pacific Northwest Research Station

ABOUT US

RESEARCH AREAS

The EFB Team is one of several teams that conduct studies under the research branch of the USDA Forest Service. Our team evolved from the Old-Growth Forest Wildlife Habitat Research and Development Program, Spotted Owl Research, Development and Applications Program, and the Wildlife Habitat Relationships Research Unit in western Washington and Oregon. Our team is currently part of the Ecosystem Processes Research Program of the Pacific Northwest Research Station.

During the past biennium, our goal was to provide useful and timely information to forest managers. Our approach has been to combine current interdisciplinary ecosystem research with knowledge gained from past research (originating as far back as 1982) to evaluate and interpret management practices, strategies, and outcomes. The key science findings we report here are a logical synthesis of almost two decades of research and can be grouped into five broad categories:

(1) biotic community studies
(2) spotted owl studies
(3) spotted owl prey base studies
(4) simulation modeling based on retrospective studies of young and old stand
(5) the results from experiments in young, managed stands.

A second-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest.

Core areas of our study:

- Synthesis of retrospective studies on wildlife, fungal, and plant communities of old-growth, naturally young, and managed forests to determine the process of forest development as it relates to composition, structure, and function of healthy Douglas-fir/western hemlock forest ecosystems.

- Develop the conservation of biodiversity concept into a useful strategy for forest ecosystem and forested landscape management.

- Simulation modeling of biodiversity pathways and alternatives to determine optimal approaches to joint production of ecological and economic goods and services under the principle of general sustainability.

- Experimental testing of hypotheses, alternative biodiversity pathways, and indices of ecosystem health.

- Develop innovative multimedia approaches to effectively and efficiently communicate research and syntheses of research to forest managers, landowners, and other stakeholders.

Research Programs
Detailed information about our research programs.