USDA Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges: Research for the Long Term [Hardcover]

USDA Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges (EFRs) are scientific treasures, providing secure, protected research sites where complex and diverse ecological processes are studied over the long term. This book offers several examples of the dynamic interactions among questions of public concern or policy, EFR research, and natural resource management practices and policies. Often, trends observed  or expected -- in the early years of a research program are contradicted or confounded as the research record extends over decades. The EFRs are among the few areas in the US where such long-term research has been carried out by teams of scientists. Changes in societys needs and values can also redirect research programs. Each chapter of this book reflects the interplay between the ecological results that emerge from a long-term research project and the social forces that influence questions asked and resources invested in ecological research. While these stories include summaries and syntheses of traditional research results, they offer a distinctly new perspective, a larger and more complete picture than that provided by a more typical 5-year study. They also provide examples of long-term research on EFRs that have provided answers for questions not even imagined at the time the study was installed.

USDA Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges (EFRs) offer sites where ecological processes can be studied over time.? This book explores the promise of this long-term research and new ways of using the network of EFRs to answer current questions.

Part I.?? Introduction.- Deputy Chief of FS Research, Raphael Zon, Memo to?Forest Service Chief Pinchot, May 6, 1908.- Map of USDA Forest Service Experimental Forest and Ranges.- Chapter 1. A Grand Experiment: USDA Forest Service Experiment Forest and Ranges.- Chapter 2. Forest Service Experimental Forests and Long-term Data Sets: Stories of their Meaning to Station Directol³$