College of Forestry - Oregon State University

Features
H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest: Learning in the Present,
Building on the Past, Looking to the Future
[The Andrews]… is the most studied primal forest ecosystem on this continent, and perhaps the planet. …Here,
in the shadows of this woods, in its rivulets and streams, under its soil, and high overhead, they have discovered
a hidden forest.—Jon Luoma, The Hidden Forest
Tucked away in the Cascade Mountains near
Blue River, the HJ Andrews Experimental
Forest has been yielding its secrets to scientists
for nearly 60 years. “The Andrews”,
as it is known to its many friends, was
founded in 1948. In 1980, it became a charter member of
the National Science Foundation Long-Term Ecological
Research Program,
which now comprises
26 sites. Over the
decades, scientists
from all over the
world have found
their way to the narrow
mountain road
leading to the Forest
and its 16,000 acres of
forests and streams.
Its reputation for excellence in research and education in
the ecology and management of forests and streams has
grown and spread accordingly.
Dominant research themes have changed over time.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the focus was on road engineering,
logging methods for old-growth forests, rapid forest
regeneration, and effects of logging on small watersheds.
Current researchers, building on long-term field experiments
and measurements, are developing concepts and
tools to predict effects of natural disturbance, land use,
and climate change on ecosystem structure, function,
and species composition. Applied forest management
studies continue today as part of a long-term partnership
with the Willamette National Forest.
“We have a wealth of long-term datasets on Pacific
Northwest forests and streams, which is important for
such long-lived forests,” notes Kari O’Connell, Director
of the Forest.“ These datasets can be used in novel
and unpredicted ways over the years.” Permanent study
areas make it possible to examine natural and management-induced
changes over time and to examine effects
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of catastrophic events. A 200-year experiment on log
decomposition is helping scientists understand the roles of
logs on the forest floor as habitat and in soil productivity.
Climate variation is being tracked over decades. Watershed
hydrological research is building on treatments established
50 years ago, and the same watersheds are now being used
as “airsheds” to develop new techniques of studying carbon
dynamics in mountainous areas. The many long-term
databases are updated continually. They are available online
to researchers and students from all over the world to
compare with other ecosystems, use as learning tools, and
assess environmental and ecological changes.
Although basic and applied forest science is central
to the mission of the Andrews, students and teachers
from elementary school to graduate school all have found
something to learn there. From time to time, too, creative
writers and philosophers join ecosystem scientists at the
Andrews and other natural places as participants in the
Long-Term Ecological Reflections program to explore
human/nature relationships.
The Andrews is administered cooperatively by Oregon
State University and the USDA Forest Service’s Willamette
National Forest and Pacific Northwest Research
Station. The research and educational programs are also
funded by the National Science
Foundation, NASA, the USGS,
and diverse other sources.
“One aspect of the Andrews
has stayed the same over the
decades,” O’Connell observes.
“Studies here continue to provide
critical information about forest
and stream ecology and management
to scientists, policymakers,
and everyone else concerned
with sustaining Oregon’s forests.”
More information about the
Andrews is available at www.fsl.
orst.edu/lter/.