About the OSU College of Forestry: For a century, the College of Forestry has been a world class center of teaching, learning and research. It offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs in sustaining ecosystems, managing forests and manufacturing wood products; conducts basic and applied research on the nature and use of forests; and operates more than 15,000 acres of college forests.

Bird populations in eastern Canada declining due to forest ‘degradation,’ research shows

Bird species that live in wooded areas are under stress from human-caused changes to forest composition, according to new research led by Oregon State University that quantifies the effects of forest “degradation” on bird habitat.

Non-social jays surprise scientists by learning as skillfully as birds living in groups

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The California scrub-jay, a generally non-social bird, can learn just as well as another species of jay that lives in groups, a finding that surprised animal intelligence researchers who devised a novel food puzzle to study cognition in the wild.

Likelihood of extreme autumn fire weather has increased 40%, Oregon State modeling shows

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The likelihood of hot, dry, windy autumn weather that can set the stage for severe fires in California and western Oregon has increased 40% due to human-caused climate change, new computer models show.

OSU research suggests Forest Service lands not the main source of wildfires affecting communities

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Research led by Oregon State University shows that fires are more likely to burn their way into national forests than out of them.

Snow cover critical for revegetation following high-severity forest fires, OSU study shows

CORVALLIS, Ore. – How much and how long a severely burned Pacific Northwest mountain landscape stays blanketed in winter snow is a key factor in the return of vegetation, research by Oregon State University and the University of Nevada, Reno shows.

OSU research helps uncover strikingly simple means of diagnosing ecosystem health

An international collaboration including Oregon State University researcher Bev Law says the health of a terrestrial ecosystem can be largely determined by three variables: vegetations’ ability to uptake carbon, its efficiency in using carbon and its efficiency in using water.

OSU study: Thinning moderates forest fire behavior even without prescribed burns – for a while

Mechanical thinning alone can calm the intensity of future wildfires for many years, and prescribed burns lengthen thinning’s effectiveness, according to Oregon State University research involving a seasonally dry ponderosa pine forest in northeastern Oregon.

Oregon State scientists collaborate on road map for adapting dry forests to new fire regimes

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University scientists and collaborators from throughout the West say that thinning and prescribed burning are crucial parts of adaptive management for seasonally dry, fire-dependent forests such as those east of the Cascade crest.

Earth’s vital signs worsen amid business-as-usual mindset on climate change

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Twenty months after declaring a climate emergency and establishing a set of vital signs for the Earth, a coalition headed by two Oregon State University researchers says the updated vital signs “largely reflect the consequences of unrelenting business as usual.”

Roadless forests see more blazes and greater severity, but fire resilience is the result

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Roadless national forests in the American West burn more often and at a slightly higher severity than national forests without roads, but the end result for the roadless forests is greater fire resilience, Oregon State University researchers say.

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