College of Forest Resources

Dean
B. Bruce Bare
107 Anderson

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Stephen West
123 Anderson

The College of Forest Resources generates and disseminates knowledge for the stewardship of natural and managed environments and the sustainable use of their products and services. Its vision is to provide internationally recognized knowledge and leadership for environmental and natural resource issues.

Founded in 1907, the College holds a position of national and international leadership in both instruction and research. Its location in one of the world's largest forest regions provides students access to a unique urban-to-wildland world-class laboratory in which to study. Approximately 250 undergraduate and 175 graduate students are enrolled, taught by more than 50 faculty members. Students enjoy small classes and close association with faculty, as well as the diversity and superior facilities of a large research university.

The College's programs focus on the sustainability and functionality of complex natural resource and environmental systems using an integrated, interdisciplinary approach across multiple scales involving the urban-to-wildland gradient. Its programs serve society generally, and natural resource professions in particular, with graduates well equipped to contribute to discussions and solutions to resource problems facing the region and the world. Interdisciplinary research and outreach centers and cooperatives include the Center for International Trade in Forest Products (CINTRAFOR), the Water Center, the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH), the UW Botanic Gardens (UWBG), the Olympic National Resources Center (ONRC), the Rural Technology Initiative (RTI), Stand Management Cooperative (SMC), and the Precision Forestry Cooperative. For current information on all these centers and cooperatives, please visit www.cfr.washington.edu/research/index.html.

Facilities

The College occupies three central Seattle campus buildings: Alfred H. Anderson Hall, the Hugo Winkenwerder Forest Sciences Laboratory, and Julius H. Bloedel Hall. In addition, the Center for Urban Horticulture, a part of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens, is located near the Union Bay natural area on the east side of the Seattle campus.

The Center for Urban Horticulture maintains a library that serves students, faculty, landscape professionals, and the public. The Center's herbarium supports fieldwork in urban horticulture, restoration ecology, and dendrology. Containing representative plant material from all parts of the United States, the collection includes dried, mounted specimens of shrubs, hardwood trees, and conifers. Another herbarium, complete in plants native to the Pacific Northwest and maintained by the Department of Biology, is available for use by the College's students.

The College's laboratory facilities represent an extensive array of modern equipment for research, including optical equipment, electronic instrumentation for a wide variety of uses, gas chromatographs, spectrophotometers, and physical-test equipment. Specific laboratories are designed to study soil chemistry and soil physics, hydrology, polymer chemistry, tree physiology, genetics, wood and extractives chemistry, physics of fibrous composites, applied mechanics, wood process technology, silviculture, ecology, paleoecology, pathology, entomology, wildlife, landscape management systems, horticultural physiology, and horticultural plant materials.

The College computing facilities include computer systems dedicated to specific research areas, a student computer laboratory, a geographical information systems (GIS) laboratory, and a local-area network with several servers offering access to the Internet and local printers.

Office of Student and Academic Services

Director, Student and Academic Services
Michelle M. Trudeau
130 Anderson
cfradv@u.washington.edu

The Office of Student and Academic Services in the College of Forest Resources assists prospective students with admission to the College and advises current students, including interpretation of College and University requirements and assistance in course planning. At the graduate level, faculty advisers assist students in creating a course plan to help build an appropriate academic background for their research area.

The office keeps job listings and employer resources to help students obtain summer employment and internships while in school and permanent employment upon graduation. The office also sponsors a career fair every January. Although work experience is not required for graduation, students are strongly urged to seek summer employment relevant to their career goals.

Research Programs

Areas of research are closely tied to the College's graduate program research areas. These include forest ecology, forest soils, forest systems and bioenergy, paper science and engineering, restoration ecology and environmental horticulture, social sciences, sustainable resource management, and wildlife science.

Outreach Programs

The College, through its interdisciplinary centers and through collaboration with Cooperative Extension of Washington State University, undertakes and promotes continuing public and professional education for citizens of the state.

Field Facilities

College field facilities include two major forested areas covering more than 4,000 acres, an arboretum, a natural area, and several cooperative research centers and stations. These lands offer a wide variety of terrestrial and aquatic characteristics favorable to a full range of scientific investigations. They also provide a natural-science laboratory for the many disciplines in the College concerned with the research and teaching of natural resources science and management.

The 4,200-acre Charles Lathrop Pack Experimental Forest is located 65 miles south of the University, near Eatonville, Washington. Broad forest and soil diversity in this area has led to extensive biological, management, and engineering research. A full-time resident staff manages this facility, harmonizing its public-education objectives with academic and research objectives. Rustic but comfortable facilities which provide housing and support to research programs are also used extensively for conferences both within and outside the University. The College is establishing a new Center for Sustainable Forestry at Pack Forest to be charged with discovering, teaching, and demonstrating the concepts of sustainable forestry, with special emphasis on the College's strategic themes of sustainable forest enterprise and sustainable land and ecosystem management in an urbanizing world.

The Olympic Natural Resources Center (ONRC) is a 19,000-square-foot research and education facility located on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula. The mission of the center is to conduct research and education on natural-resources management practices which integrate ecological and economic values. Innovative management methods that integrate environmental and economic interests into pragmatic management of forest and ocean resources are demonstrated. A forest management program as well as a marine program are in place to study the relationship between the terrestrial and marine environment.

The Wind River Canopy Crane is a 250-foot research crane set in old-growth forest canopy in southwestern Washington state. It is the largest canopy crane in the world and the first in a temperate forest. A research partnership between the College of Forest Resources and the U.S. Forest Service, it provides graduate students and faculty opportunities for on-site research and field trip opportunities for undergraduates.

The Lee Memorial Forest, approximately 160 acres, is located about 22 miles northeast of the University, near Maltby. This forested property provides valuable academic and research opportunities near the campus. Characterized by forest types and soils common to western Washington lowlands, Lee Forest is used extensively for short field trips and for long-term research and demonstration projects especially related to changing land uses.

The Allan E. Thompson Research Center and the Joe E. Monahan Findley Lake Reserve and Research Area in the Cedar River watershed are utilized by the College in cooperation with Seattle Public Utilities for studies in forest physiology and mineral cycling in the forest ecosystem.

The Center for Urban Horticulture, a part of the UW Botanic Gardens, has offices, laboratories, public-education resources, and field sites for teaching and experimentation along the shore of Union Bay. Its 10-acre Union Bay Gardens emphasize unusual ornamental and native woody landscape plants. The 60-acre Union Bay Natural Area, a former dumpsite now a naturalized habitat, is used by University classes and the public to study principles and practices of restoration ecology. The Douglas Research Conservatory is a modern plant-growing facility with greenhouses, growth chambers, nursery, and classrooms. The Otis Douglas Hyde Herbarium is an herbarium dedicated to plants of urban horticultural significance. The Miller Seed Vault stores seeds of Washington's rare and endangered native plants in support of restoration and research projects. The Elisabeth C. Miller Horticultural Library is the Northwest's foremost public horticultural library, with books, journals, and other materials available to the gardening public, students, and professional horticulturists. The Center also conducts courses, lectures, and special events for the public and professionals as part of the College's outreach program. Cooperative programs are in place with Washington State University/King County Cooperative Extension, whose horticulture program is housed at the Center.

The University of Washington Botanic Gardens' largest facility is the Washington Park Arboretum, a 230-acre collection of trees and shrubs in a naturalistic setting on the south shore of Lake Washington. Managed in cooperation with the City of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, the arboretum contains some 5,200 different kinds of woody plants that are available for research and academic study, making it the third most diverse arboretum in the United States. Displays and programs educate students and visitors about woody plants' diversity, natural ecology, and urban landscape use, as well as conserving endangered natural and cultivated plants. Classes in botany, dendrology, horticulture, wildlife, and landscape architecture make use of the collections, while the grounds are used for studies in soil science, ecology, and various research projects, including many independent student projects. The arboretum, established in 1934, also serves as an important public-service area to the University, offering numerous formal and informal classes for the general public and, in addition, serving the community as a public park and open space.