H.J. ANDREWS EXPERIMENTAL FOREST

Established in 1948, the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest has been a major site of forest and stream ecosystem research since the late 1960s, including pioneering work describing old-growth Douglas-fir forests and the habitat needs of the northern spotted owl. The Andrews forest is one of two dozen Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites in the United States designated and sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The LTER program is a national and international network of research sites intended to better understand the potential ecological consequences of climate change, natural disturbance, and human activities. Studies are conducted on the Andrews to better understand vegetation development and mortality, carbon dynamics, fire history, climatic patterns, stream ecology, insect ecology, and many other topics (visit www.fsl.orst.edu/lter for more information).