HJ Andrews Experimental Forest Long-Term Ecological Research Site

02/07/2026

Thirtieth anniversary of 1996 floods

This weekend (Feb 6-8, 2026) marks the 30th anniversary of the major flood of 1996, which was one of the largest flows in the recorded history of Lookout Creek in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest (HJA). The flood caused damage and destruction to communities across the Northwest--at its peak, the Willamette River came within a foot of overtopping the walls and flooding downtown Portland, Oregon. At the start of the storm over a foot of snow was at the HJA headquarters site and over the several days of the storm an additional foot of rain fell, melting the snow, feeding the flood. Gordon Grant took video at several places in and near Andrews, and segments were incorporated in Alan Honick's video, Torrents of Change. Research following the flood showed dramatic change in characteristics of streams and riparian zones, but also amazing resilience of components of the stream ecosystem. Rain-on-snow floods like the 1996 event are the largest floods not just in the PNW, but nationally, and the Andrews Forest long-term data provides unique insights into what causes these floods.

See Torrents of Change:
https://alanhonick.com/torrents-of-change/

12/08/2025

Get to know the western spotted skunk
‘The stench kind of permeates everything’: What it takes to study a stinky, secretive skunk
Kylie Mohr
December 5, 2025

Marie Tosa knows more about the western spotted skunk than almost anyone on Earth. Between 2017 and 2019, as a Ph.D. student at Oregon State University, Tosa trekked all over the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon’s Cascade Range, capturing, collaring and following spotted skunks through dense forests and rolling valleys. In the process, she put 300,000 miles on two research trucks and got sprayed anywhere between 50 and 100 times. But it was worth it, she said: Her research revealed new details of the species’ diet, movements and habitat preferences.

https://www.hcn.org/issues/57-12/get-to-know-the-western-spotted-skunk/

09/19/2025

The Secret Lives of Dead Trees

Forest ecologist Mark Harmon has been exhaustively examining dead logs for 40 years, and he’s found a complex world few people see.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dead-trees-hide-a-complex-world-crucial-to-forest-ecology-and-climate/

09/03/2025

When Shade Isn’t Enough: Climate Change in the Forest Understory.

By Zachary Perry, graduate student in water resource sciences science at OSU and the Andrews Forest LTER site

Once thought to be natural refuges, old-growth forests are warming faster than we imagined.

07/19/2025

Two years ago, lightning sparked the Lookout Fire, burning three-quarters of the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest Long-Term Ecological Research Site — one of the nation’s leading research forests and a cornerstone of long-term ecological research at OSU. The fire destroyed infrastructure and disrupted long-term studies, but it also ignited something else: an unprecedented new research agenda.

Mark Harmon, a forest ecologist and professor emeritus at the College of Forestry, lost half of his long-term research plots in the fire, but for him, that loss opened the door to new and powerful questions. Harmon is now studying how forest structures and conditions influence the way fire behaves and trees burn.

“The fire reorganizes things,” he said.

Professor Matthew Betts has also been tracking a surprising shift: a greater abundance and diversity of birds, including species never before documented in the forest, moving into burned areas.

And Michael Paul Nelson, professor of environmental ethics and philosophy, alongside collaborator Claire Rapp, dove into the emotional reactions and perceptions of fire and its long-term implications.

Explore the full scope of interdisciplinary research the HJA has supported — and continues to enable — in the Seattle Times story: https://beav.es/xJd

📸: The Seattle Times

07/11/2025

The College of Forestry's Department of Forest Engineering, Resources and Management is seeking a Manager of the Cooperative Chemical Analytical Laboratory. This is a full-time (1.00 FTE), 12-month, professional faculty position.The OSU College of Forestry’s Cooperative Chemical Analytical Laborat...

05/16/2025

Old Forests in a New Climate
It’s usually cooler under a forest than outside the forest, but that natural temperature buffering didn’t make global warming any less strong during the last 45 years in an old-growth forest of Oregon.

It’s usually cooler under a forest than outside the forest, but that natural temperature buffering didn’t make global warming any less strong during the last 45 years in an old-growth forest of Oregon.

04/15/2025

Salamanders signal health of McKenzie River watershed: Above the Willamette Valley, salamanders once swam abundantly in mountain streams. But their presence has dwindled as wildfires have scorched forests.

Read the article!
https://lookouteugene-springfield.com/story/environment/2025/04/15/salamanders-mckenzie-river-watershed/

02/10/2025

Roadside Treatments in Fire Management: Lookout Fire

A new short video featuring the Andrews Forest is available to watch on our YouTube channel! Take a break and give it a watch. Have a great day out there!

For more information, see the Andrews Forest website [http://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/]To support the Andrews Forest, please see the Andrews Forest Supp...

01/07/2025

TOMORROW!! January 8, 2025

You're invited to "Deep Time: Writing and Art from an Ancient Forest" on January 8 in the Toomey Lobby of PRAx.

For more than 20 years, the Spring Creek Project has been inviting creative responses to the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest through our Long-Term Ecological Reflections program. This program brings imaginative thinkers in the humanities and the written and visual arts to this ancient forest of the Blue River watershed in Oregon, where scientists have been engaged for decades in long-term study.

Now, you’re invited to join us for a special evening celebrating creative projects from this program that are making us think in new ways about forests, our relationship to place, and the importance of long-term inquiry.

Featured presenters Riley Yuan, Tom Montgomery Fate, Nancy Floyd, and Claire Giordano will share their work from the Andrews Forest and offer reflections that branch out far beyond the place where they originated.

Doors open at 6 p.m. for a happy hour that will include a specially curated forest-themed book sale by Grass Roots Books, art displays, poetry, and more.

Learn more here: https://prax.oregonstate.edu/events/deep-time-writing-and-art-ancient-forest

10/16/2024

A new study in Oregon's Cascade Range done by an Oregon State University graduate student reveals a tube "sock-like skunk" is sensitive to severe winters.

09/16/2024

Darren Cross of the McKenzie Ranger District talks about the H. J. Andrews Experimental LTER Project, how it has impacted the Willamette Complex-North and how studies can be used for future firefighting