Solving Problems with Research -- The FRL at Work for Oregon

The Forest Research Laboratory was established by the Oregon State Legislature in 1941 to solve problems. The charge then was to obtain the highest utilization of the resource, meaning the timber resources of the state. One of the earliest projects was to provide the technology for reforesting the Tillamook Burn.

This long-standing tradition of research focusing on solving Oregon's problems continues today. The nature of the research has changed significantly as the problems have grown in complexity. The focus has shifted from the productivity of a single resource (timber) to understanding the relationships among the many resources of Oregon's forests that enrich the lives of Oregonians, and from making small sawmills more efficient to helping a complex primary and secondary manufacturing industry remain competitive in a global market. New technologies and advances in other disciplines have also changed what we research at the Forest Research Laboratory and how we do that research. But the basic commitments to solving problems and serving Oregon have not changed in the past half-century.

We believe that Oregon's investment in problem-solving forestry research has paid off handsomely in the development of new knowledge that guides the managers of Oregon's forests and forest products industries, assists policy makers, and informs Oregonians about our forest resources and our choices for the forests of Oregon's future. This Biennial Report describes some of these payoffs and demonstrates how the Forest Research Laboratory's problem-solving approach to research works for Oregon.

We hope that you will enjoy reading the research summaries in this Report. We also hope that you will contact the FRL for any further information that you might need on these studies or on any of the hundreds of other projects currently conducted by the scientific staff. Results of most FRL research projects are documented in the publications listed at the back of this Report. Many of those publications are available from the FRL on request, as noted for each entry in the list.