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Weather Stations

Submitted by Lina on Fri, 09/22/2023 - 11:58

For the past few days, the Lookout Fire has been burning around one of our remote weather stations, Upper Lookout (UPLMET), and is nearing a second, Central (CENMET). Fortunately, as of the time of this post (August 21), the UPLMET station continues to send useful weather data over our network of radio relays. The first weather stations at HJA were installed to aid research on logging methods starting in 1952. Three more stations were added over time. Today we maintain seven weather stations spread out to capture the environment across the entire research forest.

Carpenter Mountain Fire Lookout

Submitted by Lina on Fri, 09/22/2023 - 11:29

Rob Mutch, the USFS Fire Lookout stationed on Carpenter Mountain, was on duty on August 5 and was the first to spot the tell-tale waft of smoke from the flank of Lookout Mountain, following the lightning storm on August 5. Rob, who is also a professional photographer, shared photos of the fire a week later, as conditions caused a massive column of smoke. For safety, Rob was moved from his station on Carpenter Mountain and is now assisting other USFS fire lookouts in the area.

The Lookout Creek Old Growth Trail

Submitted by Lina on Mon, 09/11/2023 - 14:58

Did you ever hike the Lookout Creek Old Growth Trail? John Cissel, then in his role as the Research Liaison with the US Forest Service, conceived and planned the Lookout Creek Old Growth Trail over 30 years ago as a way to connect the HJA with a broader public. John writes, “It took a lot of help from our friends, but we successfully added sections of new trail at each trailhead that connected to an old, unmaintained administrative trail that ran across the slope of lower Lookout Mountain.

Lookout Fire Update August 7 2023

News Brief Description: 

Notice:  A lightning strike fire started on Saturday, August 5, within the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, between the base of Lookout cliff and the ridge dividing Lookout and Mack Creek drainages.  As of today, August 7, the fire is 2.5 acres. Two helicopters are traveling between the Blue River reservoir and the fire carrying water. The plan is to keep knocking back the fire until ground crews can get a line around it and contain it.  It is burning in steep terrain, in old growth with dense understory, which is making it a challenge for experienced ground crews.  In addition to the helicopters, a hotshot crew has been assigned to the fire, most likely starting August 8. 

Check the Eugene Interagency Communications Office for updates on size and containment.

Researchers and the public are advised to stay out of the area, including the Lookout Old Growth trail, to allow fire crews space and access. We are anticipating a fire closure on site.

Researchers and public should be ready to evacuate if we move to a level 1 evacuation level.  Anyone working on site should have a radio on at all times.

All further updates will be posted to https://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/about/news-events/lookout-fire-updates-2023 

Robbins talk on Sixty Years of Forestry

News Brief Description: 

Bill Robbins, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History Oregon State University, will present, “Sixty Years of Forestry: A Retrospective on the Douglas-fir Region” this Wednesday, January 25, LaSells Stewart Center C&E Hall. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for a reception 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Registration required: register HERE.  Robbins is the author of the book “A Place for Inquiry, A Place for Wonder: The Andrews Forest”.

Art - Science Immersion

News Brief Description: 

Photographer Nancy Floyd is using her 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship award to explore remote corners of the Andrews Forest with Marquette University ecology professor Joe Lamanna and his field crew and students. This art-science encounter is in early stages of development, but after weeks in the field together this summer, a theme of immersion seems to be taking shape – the literal immersion of everyone swimming in a sea of vegetation and the immersive attentiveness of artist and field ecologists pouring over a meter-square plot for hours or expanding a hectare-scale reference stands to many hectares.  

Nancy comments, "While the long days can be grueling, climbing over downed Douglas firs and through the impossible vine maples while battling bugs and sometimes heat and rain, what impressed me most was listening to them talk about the forest and their commitment to their work. To know that what they record today will be studied and then carried on in future studies gives me hope for our planet."  

BIO

Nancy Floyd is a visual artist whose interests include the aging female body, the passage of time, barren landscapes, and trees.   She uses photography, video, and mixed-media to address the ways in which lens-based media can connect deeply with experience and memory.

Floyd has received numerous grants and awards including a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship to carry out an exploration of trees in Oregon and the 2019 International Center of Photography / GOST Books First Photo Book Award for her 39-year self-portrait series, Weathering Time.  Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues including The High Museum of Art (Atlanta, GA), The Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago, IL), Blue Sky Gallery (Portland, OR); CUE Art Foundation (New York, NY); and Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum (San Antonio, TX) and is in the collection of the Center for Creative Photography (Tucson, AZ), the High Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Lightwork (Syracuse, NY), and in numerous private collections. She lives in Bend, OR.

John Grade talk and reception

Event Date: 
Friday, October 28, 2022
Event Brief Description: 

John Grade talk and reception: John Grade's monumental sculpture, "Emeritus," suspended in the middle of OSU's giant sequoias in the Memorial Union Quad, is inspired by the form of an absent tree. This event will include an informal viewing of the sculpture, complimentary food/no-host wine and beer, artist talk, informal conversation and book signing. Friday, Oct. 28 at 5:30 p.m. in the SEC Plaza.

Alongside the sculpture are sensors, based on work of the Long-Term Ecological Research program at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, that will measure the tree trunk expansion, bird sounds and bioacoustics, and eDNA of animals and plants that live on the trees. 

Science and Sculpture

News Brief Description: 

Sculpture artist John Grade is partnering with researchers with the Andrews Forest LTER program to create a public art installation on the campus of Oregon State University. "Emeritus" will be suspended between three large trees, and the trees will be fitted with sensors that record data on tree trunk expansion and contraction, DNA on organisms, and bioacoustics on birds. 

The piece is featured in an Oct 10 article in the Albany Democrat-Herald, "OSU's giant sequoia sculpture combines art and research to learn about climate change"

And on KGW News

All Scientists Meeting 2022

News Brief Description: 

The All Scientists Meeting of the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network convenes researchers and students from all 28 LTER sites across the country. The theme of this year’s meeting, Generations, “points to the dedication of researchers who may commit entire careers to understanding the mechanisms at work in ecosystem science.”  In line with that theme, the Andrews Forest LTER program sent 35 participants that spanned generations and career stage: undergraduate students, graduate students, post bac students, graduate students, post doctoral scholars, staff, faculty researchers, and emeritus faculty. Participants attended and led workshops on topics that included climate change, cultivating systemic change in DEIJ at LTER sites, data management, ecological forecasting, arts and humanities, and coordinated distributed experiments. The All Scientists Meeting offered an unparalleled opportunity to make connections with colleagues across the LTER Network and to work together, across sites and generations, to understand ecosystems in a changing world.  

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