Pacific Northwest Research Station

ABOUT US

RESEARCH AREAS

The Ecologically Sustainable Production of Forest Resources (ESP) team is an interdisciplinary group of eight researchers and support staff who conduct research on the technical characteristics of forest products and the analysis, design, and implementation of forest management activities. We consider the costs associated with implementing treatments as well as the potential revenue and social benefits derived from forest products. We conduct analyses of how different types of management activities, including wildland fuel prescriptions, alter forest structure in the Western United States and what this means in terms of sustaining different ecological, economic, and social functions through time.

Team Members: Eini Lowell, Susan Stevens Hummel, Geanne Hill, Dennis Dykstra

- Evaluate the influence of stand treatments on the quality and quantity of forest products.

- Determine the feasibility of financing ecosystem restoration activities through removal of forest products.

- Characterize the forest resources at different geographic scales.

- Provide information and technology to aid resource managers in understanding impacts of forest management on an array of forest products.

- Improve understanding of changing timber characteristics, processing technology, product standards, or measurement systems on product recovery of western tree species.

- Improve understanding of changing timber characteristics, processing technology, product standards, or measurement systems on product recovery of Western tree species.

- Examine how social functions affect the ways that communities and local businesses engage with the forest to affect their socioeconomic well-being.

- Better understand societal values related to ecological functions and wood products.

Research Programs
Detailed information about our research programs.

This team's 2008 Science Accomplishments