The Future of USDA Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges

Abstract

Forest Service Research and Development is working to enhance the value of its network of Experimental Forests and Ranges (EFRs) by equipping them with modern data collection infrastructure to encourage cross-site and continental-scale monitoring, research, synthesis, and assessment. We envision a network of EFRs that shares resources across research sites, with managers and with scientists in other organizations. We anticipate focusing research across this network on the most pressing natural resource policy and management challenges of our time: natural disturbances and their interaction with human communities, sustainable production of forest and range goods and services, understanding and managing the effects of invasive species, understanding and coping with a changing environment, monitoring the pulse of our forest and range conditions, anticipating and addressing current and future land and resource management challenges, fully integrating urban natural resource research into our network, and optimizing the hierarchy of scales at which current and future natural resource challenges are addressed. As this vision is realized, the legacy of EFRs will be fully honored by sustained contributions to the well-being of the American people.