Outreach and Continuing Education

Andrews LTER Faculty Seed Money Awards

Small awards have been given to Andrews LTER faculty as "seed money" to initiate research projects at the Andrews.

Post-doctoral trainees

Many Researchers at the Andrews Forest support and sponsor post-doctoral trainees to work on various aspects of research projects. The post-doctoral trainees have come from all over the world to work at the Andrews.

Field Courses and Tours of the Andrews Forest

The Andrews has become an important outdoor classroom for Ecology, Forestry, Hydrology, and Biology students from the Pacific Northwest. Classes from as far away and Japan and Quebec have also visited the Andrews Forest for field courses.

Andrews Forest Researchers and Staff provide tours and field lectures to diverse audiences, including students, visiting researchers, forest managers and the interested general public. Tours are tailored to the interests of the group, providing overviews of the research program, and explaining ecosystem processes, disturbance history and forest management. We average close to 50 tours per year, reaching more than 1,000 participants.

Research, Education and management tours held at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, January 2008-June 2011.

Year	Tours	Participants
2008	32	1,023
2009	53	913
2010	59	1,130
2011	28	668

The Andrews Field Station is used for regional and international workshops and conferences. The field station hosts several management workshops each year in conjunction with the Willamette National forest and the Central Cascades Adaptive Management Partnership. We also hosted a number of research conferences, including several funded through the LTER Network Office. In 2010, we hosted the Mountain Climate Research Conference, an international gathering of researchers studying climate and climate change in mountainous environments. The conference theme was closely linked to current Andrews LTER research objectives, and Andrews researchers gave several presentations at the event.

As the scope of the Andrews Forest Program expands, the facility is seeing new and diverse user groups: humanities and philosophy gatherings, community development workshops, K-12 teacher training, and a recent Network of Oregon Watershed Councils conference.

HJA Day annual field tour

HJA Day is the annual field gathering where we share information about research, education, and management at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest LTER site. This event featurs field presentations from OSU Faculty, USFS PNW Scientists, and Willamette National Forest staff. This event draws more than 100 attendees from a wide variety of organizations and agencies such as Oregon State University, the PNW Research Station, the Willamette National Forest, local watershed councils, the Environmental Protection Agency, citizens of the local McKenzie River community, and the Lane County Commissioner.

Long-term Ecological Reflections

The Andrews Forest Long-Term Ecological Research group; the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word; and the USDA Forest Service are collaborating in a program that brings creative writers, humanists, and ecosystem scientists together at the Andrews and in other natural venues in the Pacific Northwest. This program called Long-Term Ecological Reflections supports writers and humanists in their efforts to explore human/nature relationships as they evolve over many lifetimes.

Field symposia and gatherings

The annual Andrews Experimental Forest Symposium was initiated as a forum to foster communication about research taking place on the Andrews. It provides an opportunity for the broader OSU community to become aware of and involved in HJA research, and serves as a venue for graduate students to interact with the larger research community. The symposium features a poster session of recent research, and oral presentations synthesizing research findings.

Research-Management Partnership

Research-management partnership activities are important to the Andrews Forest program because effects of land use on forests, streams, and landscapes are an important science focus to LTER, cooperation with land managers is essential to implementing large-scale studies, and members of the partnership share a commitment to using current science and other sources of information to develop new approaches to management that effectively meet public expectations. Important features of the partnership are long-term studies and experiments on landscape management and management of young plantation forests.

Workshops and Tours organized by Central Cascades Adaptive Management Program (CCAMP)

Central Cascades Adaptive Management Program (CCAMP) is an intersection of state and federal organizations, coming together to integrate their science and natural resource management talents to develop solutions to complex natural resource challenges. CCAMP evaluates its role in natural resource management on a regular basis to maintain its relevancy to current issues. The current theme is "Future Forest Management and Ecosystem Services." CCAMP offers a variety of tours and workshops to bring these partners together to acheive their goals.

OSU Extension and Outreach Partnerships

The Andrews Forest Program has initiated a strong partnership with the Forestry and Natural Resources Extension Program at Oregon State University, and this partnership is taking on a leadership role in stimulating collaboration across the larger Cooperative Extension and LTER networks. The goal is to use the communications expertise of Extension to provide a better link of communications between scientists and natural resource managers and other decisions makers, especially with respect to climate, climate change, and climate impacts on natural and managed ecosystems.

OSU Forestry Extension and Andrews Forest co-hosted a week-long Climate Change Study Retreat at the Andrews Forest in August 2010 that was attended by 15 Extension educators and 11 LTER faculty. In each of 7 half-day science sessions researchers reviewed some relevant science on a wide range of topics, from climate science and modeling to projected impacts to forested systems in Oregon, The Retreat produced a set of actions and collaborative projects that will help build working relations while meeting shared objectives.

Nationally, this partnership is networking with other sites with similar Research-Extension partnerships (e.g., at Kellogg Biological Station) and facilitating conversations about a larger network of Research-Extension partners at national meetings. This idea was presented at a National Workshop on Climate & Forests in May 2011 sponsored by the Society of American Foresters, and received very positive feedback from a number of research and extension colleagues. This partnership will be presenting at the May 2012 Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals conference in North Carolina, including a tour of the Coweeta LTER site. Our hope is to organize a working group for the 2012 LTER All Scientists Meeting to continue discussions on building a national network.