The amount of carbon stored in soils is about three times that in living plants and double that in the atmosphere.

But, we often overlook soils’ powerful ability to store carbon.

“Concern about rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations has heightened interest in the role that forests play in carbon sequestration, storage and cycling,” says Jeff Hatten, associate professor of soil science and head of the forest engineering, resources and management department at the Oregon State University College of Forestry. “Living trees sequester and store carbon, but we give less recognition to soils’ role.”

But what happens to the soil’s carbon levels after forest harvests?

According to published research by OSU and Weyerhaeuser Company, conventional timber harvesting has no effect on carbon levels in the mineral soils of the western Pacific Northwest for at least three-and-a-half years after harvest.

Historic in its scope, a collaborative and long-term effort between Hatten and Scott Holub of Weyerhaeuser monitored nine managed Douglas-fir forest stands in Oregon and Washington before and after traditional timber harvest and replanting, analyzing more than 50,000 soil samples from 2700 sample points.

“Our original hypothesis that timber harvesting would decrease soil carbon in the short term was disproven,” Hatten says. “Even where you have the highest soil temperatures and the highest soil moistures – the strongest environment for decomposition that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – harvesting doesn’t seem to have an impact in the areas we studied.”

Across all the sites combined, after harvest, the scientists found little change (+2%) in mineral soil carbon content and a 184% hike in forest floor carbon, the result of harvest residue.

“We should not overlook the importance of the 184% increase in forest floor carbon,” says Katherine McCool, a master’s student in Hatten’s lab who is researching forest soil and watershed processes. “We can expect this increase because the branches, needles and bark that fall to the ground as harvest residue, in addition to the dead roots and stumps from harvested trees, will provide much of the future carbon that will infiltrate into the soil.”

The study, the most extensive sampling ever conducted to determine if harvesting has an impact on soil carbon, is essential because of soil’s ability to store carbon to mitigate and prevent increased greenhouse
gases and maintain a stable carbon balance in the soil for sustainable forest management.

“Soil carbon also is useful in establishing a suitable microbiome for plant and fungal growth,” says McCool. “Without ample soil carbon, new seedlings in post-disturbance areas will not be able to grow.”

Hatten had plans to resample these research sites in coming years and decades to look at the longer-term impacts. Then the 2020 Holiday Farm fire occurred, tearing through some of the research sites near Eugene, Oregon, and dramatically altering the forest landscape. The research continues, but now Hatten and McCool are also studying the role and effect of fire on soil carbon dynamics, examining one of the nine research sites which burned and assessing how soil changes after a severe wildfire in a harvested stand.

“The existence of this preestablished soil carbon site provides an excellent opportunity to study the difference between pre- and post-fire soil carbon, which is often hard to come by due to the spontaneity of wildfire,” says McCool.

Hatten and McCool found a 97% decrease in forest floor carbon within the research site, which equates to 14-times less forest floor carbon than in the pre-harvest stand. The fire’s impact on the mineral soil carbon is still undetermined, but given that 90% of the soil’s carbon lies below the forest floor, the results will have big ramifications for the total carbon budget of the site.

“These initial results show that disturbances like fire can reduce carbon sequestration progress,” says McCool. “Therefore, management activities need to include a focus on fire-safe landscapes if we want to prioritize carbon containment.”

A version of this story appeared in the Spring 2022 issue of Focus on Forestry, the alumni magazine of the Oregon State University College of Forestry.

Caitlyn Reilley has worn many hats during her time at Oregon State University.

First, she was an undergraduate pursuing a career as a clinical dietician. Then, after realizing how heavily social, economic, and environmental factors influence individual health outcomes, she switched gears to focus on community-level health. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in public health in 2016, securing a job as an outreach coordinator for the Linus Pauling Institute, a nutrition research institute at OSU.

While working as the outreach coordinator, Reilley began eyeing opportunities to return to school to study environmental policy. She learned about the opportunity to join the College of Forestry as the coordinator for the Elliott State Research Forest project.

“The Elliott project coordinator role was such a unique opportunity to bring my skillset to a project situated at the intersection of public lands policy, natural resource management, and rural community well-being,” Reilley says. “It was also fulfilling to help the College envision a path forward for the Elliott that benefits local communities while providing critical research into the best way to deliver the myriad of social, economic, and ecological values our forests provide.”

According to Reilley, developing a proposal for a research forest was often messy and included many difficult conversations. Overall, however, it was a joyful experience for her and gave her confidence in the ability of humans to work together to solve complex natural resource issues.

It also confirmed her desire to study natural resources management. As a current graduate student in sustainable forest management with a concentration in economics and policy, Reilley is working with Mindy Crandall, assistant professor of forest policy and economics. Crandall’s research focuses on the role that natural resources, especially forests, play in human well-being.

Together, she and Crandall are a part of a collaborative project studying the human dimensions of wildfire with researchers at the Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station. Her master’s research explores community vulnerability to wildfire and the social drivers of human-caused fire ignitions.

“The majority of fires in Oregon are started by people, and research into what drives these human-caused fires can help inform fire prevention strategies,” Reilley says.

Reilley’s research into socially vulnerable populations allowed her to support the implementation of Senate Bill 762 (SB 762), Oregon’s omnibus wildfire bill allocating millions for landscape scale forest restoration and community wildfire preparedness projects.

“As a part of this project, we are identifying and mapping socially vulnerable communities to help allocate resources provided by SB 762,” says Reilley. “Not all communities are equally equipped to prevent or respond to wildfire and it has been really encouraging to see how much interest there is in using this type of data to prioritize funding and support for communities that need it most.”

When Reilley is not in front of her computer analyzing data, she is in the forest and enjoys long-distance running and mountain biking with her Australian shepherd pup Ginger.

“Thanks to a rigorous Ginger-driven training plan, I was able to complete my first Ironman triathlon last summer in Coeur D’ Alene, Idaho,” Reilley says. “I also recently started building live edge furniture. I love to hunt for unique slabs of wood and am slowly building my arsenal of power tools.”

“I’ve learned so much from working with College of Forestry faculty these past three years. The Elliott project and implementation of SB 762 have provided incredible opportunities to see first-hand how the research informs real world management and policy decisions that promote healthy ecosystems and communities. Oregon communities are really at the heart of the work I’ve been able to be a part of here in the College, and I feel so fortunate for that.”

As the recipient of two scholarships from the College of Forestry: the Hal Salwasser Fellowship and the Lu Alexander Graduate Fellowship, Reilley is looking forward to using her scholarships to present her research at conferences this spring. After graduating this summer, she plans to continue working in the wildfire policy realm and hopes that her future career path never takes her too far from her home here in Oregon.

A version of this story appeared in the Spring 2022 issue of Focus on Forestry, the alumni magazine of the Oregon State University College of Forestry.

The Society of Wood Science and Technology (SWST) has selected four members of the Oregon State University Department of Wood Science and Engineering community to serve as “Women Ambassadors Creating the Future of Wood Science.”

Associate professor of wood design and architecture Mariapaola Riggio, wood science and engineering alumna Balkis Bakar (PhD, ’19), former OSU graduate faculty member Andreja Kutnar, and Anne Toppinen, who completed her sabbatical at OSU in the 1990s, will be recognized throughout the following year for their contributions and mentorship of women entering the wood science field.

Committed to the field of wood science for the future, the SWST has created a sponsored exhibition piece designed to celebrate women ambassadors in the field. The four members of the OSU community, along with 12 other women, will be a part of a traveling exhibition over the next year to recognize their efforts.

The first exhibition will occur during the 2022 SWST International Convention in Kingscliff, Australia, from July 10-16. It will travel worldwide until the 2023 SWST International Convention in Asheville, North Carolina. The exhibition will be displayed at Oregon State during the Fall 2022 term. The announcement coincides with the International Day for Women and Girls in Science, which the United Nations created in 2015 to achieve full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls, and further achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

The first published results from the Play2Cope project reports that engaging in leisure activities during COVID-19 supported stress reduction and enhanced wellbeing.  The Play2Cope project is a collaboration between the Health, Environment, and Leisure (HEAL) research lab led by Xiangyou (Sharon) Shen, assistant professor (visiting) in the department of forest ecosystems and society, and colleagues in Oregon State University College of Public Health and Human Sciences.

These results, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, are the first investigation of U.S. adults’ overall leisure engagement and its association with mental health amidst the major disruptions and sustained stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants reported general increases in home-based traditional leisure and digital/online activities and decreases in physical and nature-based activities. The most popular outdoor activities were walking and gardening. A very small proportion of people started a new favorite leisure activity during COVID-19 and most people continued or fell back on activities they had engaged in before the pandemic.

The results suggest that engaging in leisure activities during times of prolonged, heightened stress could be a way to cope with stress. Failing to maintain or make adaptive changes to one’s leisure engagement was associated with a higher risk of developing depressive symptoms. The study also revealed that the positive aspect of mental health was primarily predicted by people’s own evaluation of their leisure engagement relative to a desired level, and less by the actual level of leisure activities.

Shen X, MacDonald M, Logan SW, Parkinson C, Gorrell L, Hatfield BE. Leisure Engagement during COVID-19 and Its Association with Mental Health and Wellbeing in U.S. Adults. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(3):1081. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031081

This study was supported by the Hallie E. Ford Center Team Science Seed Grant from the Hallie E. Ford Center for Healthy Children & Families, College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University.

Climate change is increasing pressure on the built environment and building sector to transform from a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions to a central solution. The development of mass timber technology and the use of wood to construct mid to high-rise buildings can serve as a pathway to a more sustainable future, meeting a rapidly growing global urban population while decreasing carbon emissions and increasing human health benefits.

International networking and collaboration with researchers at the cutting-edge of mass timber technology, wood science and data-driven infrastructure safety is key to achieving the much-needed breakthroughs to advance innovative mass-timber buildings.

The College of Forestry at Oregon State University is partnering with researchers at InnoRenew CoE, faculty of mathematics, natural sciences and information technologies at the University of Primorska and faculty of agriculture and forestry at the University of Helsinki to create an international, informal alliance to share mass timber technology data related to structural health monitoring. Structural health monitoring refers to analyses of data generated from sensors and information technologies that observe and monitor changes over time in buildings.

For a wide and systematic use of data from mass timber buildings, there remains a need for standardization and collaboration among researchers. The alliance will utilize first-hand data from three mass-timber projects, the George W. Peavy Forest Science Center (PFSC) in Corvallis, Oregon, USA, InnoRenew CoE in Slovenia, and the Hyytiälä forest station in Finland (University of Helsinki), to help create standards for structural health monitoring. The alliance will collect unique and innovative structural systems data, develop benchmark data for further applications, and cross-reference with other projects.

Peavy Forest Science Center, College of Forestry, Corvallis, OR, USA

The PFSC is a three-story building completed in 2019 at Oregon State University and utilizes mass-timber structural elements. These include self-centering, rocking, cross-laminated timber (CLT) shear walls, CLT-concrete composite floor systems, a mass plywood panel roof system, and glulam beams and columns. To determine if the building is performing under static, dynamic, and environmental loads as expected, the PFSC serves as a full-scale living laboratory equipped with sensors. The sensors monitor outdoor and indoor climate conditions, heat and moisture transfer in CLT assemblies, moisture content of structural elements, movement of CLT floor and wall panels, tension losses in CLT shear walls, and global dynamic behavior of the structure.

InnoRenew CoE’s building, Slovenia

The InnoRenew CoE’s building, the biggest wooden building in Slovenia, is a hybrid combination of timber, concrete and steel. It was designed according to state-of- the-art principles of contemporary sustainable construction following the principles of REED (Restorative Environmental and Ergonomic Design) based on research outputs from the InnoRenew CoE.

Hyytiälä forest station, Finland

In Finland, four new mass timber buildings at the Hyytiälä forest station, faculty of agriculture and forestry of the University of Helsinki, are under construction and will be completed in 2022. The structures and walls are CLT, while flooring and roofs are laminated veneer lumber (LVL) based. The buildings are 1-2 story comprising a large catering and studying/conference hall and three accommodation buildings with studio-type rooms. Wooden (walking) bridges and platforms connect the facilities. Two of the buildings will be used to collect data, research structure and material characteristics, and monitor indoor air quality. The buildings offer an opportunity to research human health and well-being, both perceived and experimentally measured.

The academic partners agree to cooperate in exchange for the mutual advancement, support and development of joint projects, publications and scholarship opportunities. Partners will develop standard practices for future structural health monitoring projects by creating standardized data collection, processing and management protocols, and establishing a common methodology for reporting project outputs. To inform transparent governance, ownership and regulation, the network will develop a repository and website with information about projects, data and outputs.

The alliance aims to further expand by attracting researchers from around the world to contribute to new knowledge and future developments in the field of built environment.

For more information about joining the alliance, contact:

Oregon State University: Mariapaola Riggio

InnoRenew COE and University of Primorska: Andreja Kutnar

University of Helsinki: Ritva Toivonen, Laura Alakukku

The Western Wood Preservers Institute (WWPI) donated $100,000 to support the construction of a pressure treating facility in Richardson Hall on the Oregon State University campus. The lab will be utilized by the Utility Pole Research Cooperative and the Environmental Performance of Treated Wood Research Cooperative, two preservative-treated wood cooperatives housed in the College of Forestry.  Stella-Jones Inc. will be donating an experimental treating cylinder once the facility is ready, saving the cooperatives about $300,000 in equipment costs.

The repurposed facility will enable more versatile treated wood research, particularly into how to improve the treatment and durability of large wood commodities such as utility poles, railroad ties, and marine pilings. In addition, the facility will function as an educational resource, allowing students in wood science to gain hands-on experience with the process of wood treating.

Representatives of WWPI and Stella-Jones visited the Oregon Forest Science Center to deliver the donation, met with Tom DeLuca, Cheryl Ramberg-Ford and Allyn C. Ford Dean of the College of Forestry, and toured the new Peavy Forest Science Center, A.A. “Red” Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Lab, and the Peavy Arboretum. They also visited the lab spaces used by Gerald Presley, assistant professor in wood science and engineering, and his team.

“This donation enables us to advance science related to pressure treated wood and wood products,” said Gerald Presley, director of the two research cooperatives. “Pressure treatment enables wood to perform well in applications that would otherwise only be occupied by steel, concrete and plastics and OSU is now well-equipped to improve preserved wood products for better performance. This donation also helps us equip the next generation of leaders in wood science and engineering.”

Eric Hansen, department head of the department of wood science and engineering; Dean Tom DeLuca; Gerald Presley; Kyle Cassidy, President of Western Wood Preservers Institute and Director of Quality Assurance & Technical Services at Stella-Jones; Phil Schumock, Director of Sales for Residential Products at Stella-Jones; Dallin Brooks, Executive Director of Western Wood Preservers Institute. Not pictured, but in attendance were Butch Bernhardt, Senior Program Manager at Western Wood Preservers Institute; Mark Clark, Senior Technical Manager-Fire Safety with Hexion and Roy Hultberg, RJH Enterprises.

During the summer of 2021, the OSU Mechanized Harvesting Laboratory hosted a Career and Technology Education (CTE) workshop to explore opportunities for experiential learning in forestry using the harvesting simulator system. The laboratory is directed by Kevin Lyons, the Wes Lematta Professor in Forest Engineering.

Lyons and his team introduced participants to the John Deere forest harvesting simulator system. This system, which includes a terrain editor and a forest harvesting simulator, allows for virtual and experiential learning. It empowers users to begin learning about machine operation, silviculture and harvesting system planning, and mapping topography and forest cover.  It also explores ecology and non-timber values using gaming techniques.

Figure 1. Areas where harvesting simulators can contribute to CTE programs in high schools

Workshop participants included instructors from Oregon high school CTE programs and the executive director and a student officer of the Future Natural Resource Leaders. 

John Deere forest harvesting simulator

“There was unanimous agreement from the instructors that the simulator system provides unique opportunities for a range of natural resource management topics in addition to machine operator training, “ Lyons said. “The Mechanized Harvesting Laboratory is currently collaborating with the Future Natural Resources Leaders and CTE instructors on a program to bring the simulator systems to participating high schools.”

For more information, please contact Kevin Lyons, Wes Lematta Professor in Forest Engineering and director of the OSU Mechanized Harvesting Laboratory.

To ensure thoughtful and sustainable management of the McDonald and Dunn research forests, the Oregon State University Research Forests uses a combination of techniques to design and simulate harvests and other silvicultural treatments before cutting to ensure the harvest meets objectives, particularly from a viewshed perspective.

“One reason our neighbors live near the forest and in the Vineyard Mountain neighborhood is that it is beautiful up here,” says Stephen Fitzgerald, director of the OSU Research Forests. “We wanted to maintain the surrounding aesthetics as much as possible with this harvest so that it is less noticeable from afar. We also have high-use recreation trails in the harvest unit we had to consider. To design this harvest with aesthetics in mind, we used innovative techniques to design the pattern of leave trees in this highly visible area.”  

In 2020, Fitzgerald, forest manager Brent Klumph, associate professor of forest engineering Bogdan Strimbu, graduate student Bryan Begay, and forestry student workers employed a three-phase technique to plan harvests when there are potential viewshed impacts. This project was part of Begay’s larger master’s research project exploring aesthetic silviculture. This three-phase technique includes using GPS to pinpoint tree location followed by LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging and is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to reconstruct a digital version of the forest or area in question. The final phase involves walking the forest floor. The team first employed this process within the Davie Crocket II forest, a “variable retention harvest” located near the top of Vineyard Mountain in Corvallis.

“The Davie Crocket II  harvest area encompasses the well-used Vineyard Mountain recreation trail, which we wanted to protect,” explains Fitzgerald. “First, we identified and GPS’d trees along and adjacent to the trail that we wanted to retain. Second, we marked and GPS’d additional trees to be retained either singularly or in clumps across the rest of the harvest area while also creating gaps and openings. Then all of the GPS’d trees were put into LIDAR so that we could see where they were and could then look up at the harvest area (as if it was harvested showing the retained trees) from distant viewpoints around Corvallis.”

LIDAR image before cut

Being able to view what the harvest might look like before it is harvested from different vantage points from afar allows Fitzgerald and his team to add or subtract trees within the harvest area. For example, Fitzgerald explains, the proposed harvest area was evident from Highway 99 near Lewisburg, and they did not want the harvest to stand out from an aesthetic perspective. 

Before harvest looking from Hwy 99 at Lewisburg up to Vineyard Mt.

The final step of walking the forest floor with boots on the ground and eyes on the trees and their spatial arrangement allows Fitzgerald and his team to view the tree canopy and make any final adjustments.

LIDAR image after cut
After harvest looking from Hwy 99 at Lewisburg up to Vineyard Mt.

“By walking within and along the 500 Road, which borders the harvest unit, we were able to determine, mark and GPS additional trees to leave from a view and aesthetic perspective as you were hiking or biking by,” Fitzgerald says.

A view of the Davy Crockett II harvest area during the logging stage. Note the varied retention pattern of mature trees. OSU Research Forest personnel will reforest the openings. The Vineyard Mountain trail runs beneath and through these trees.

The logging contractor, Drew Marshall, recently received the 2021 Certificate of Merit through the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) for his excellent work and eye for detail. The award recognizes those forest practices operators that ‘go the extra mile’ for protecting Oregon’s natural resources while working in the forest.

A three-story mass timber building has been designed and constructed for structural testing at College of Forestry’s A.A. “Red” Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Lab, the home of the TallWood Design Institute.

This project, funded by the USDA Agricultural Research Service and led by associate professor of wood science and engineering Arijit Sinha, is testing innovative lateral force resisting systems (LFRS) comprised of newer mass timber products and different energy dissipation mechanisms. These LFRS represent a suite of resilient design techniques that can localize damage in special hardware designed to dissipate energy during an earthquake or similar disturbance. The end product is a building that is potentially more resilient to natural disasters than conventional construction.

The mass timber building, constructed by Fortis Construction Inc. and spanning 40’-x-40′ will be tested in multiple phases, with each stage utilizing different LFRS in terms of design and materials:

  1. Phase 1: The first phase will involve testing a 30-foot post-tensioned self-centering shear wall made from a mass plywood panel (MPP) with U-shaped flexural plates (UFP) as the special energy dissipating hardware. 
  2. The project’s second phase will involve testing an MPP rocking “spine” with buckling restrained braces (BRBs) used for energy dissipation.
  3. Phase 3 will introduce a new mass timber panel product, yet to hit the market, as part of post-tensioned, self-centering shear walls with UFP.

All mass timber products used in the building are manufactured in Oregon with Oregon fiber. Beams and columns are Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) manufactured by Boise Cascade, while the floors and walls are Mass Plywood Panels (MPP) manufactured by Freres Lumber. Both these products are made with Douglas-fir. Simpson StrongTie provided a majority of the connections in the building.

This project is a collaboration between research faculty in the OSU department of wood science and engineering, OSU School of Civil and Construction Engineering, and TallWood Design Institute.

For more information about this project, visit the Innovative Lateral Systems website, or contact the principal investigator Arijit Sinha at arijit.sinha@oregonstate.edu, or TDI’s outreach coordinator, Evan Schmidt, at evan.schmidt@oregonstate.edu.

The National Science Foundation awarded assistant professor Reem Hajjar $1.6 million through the DISES (Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems) program to research community forestry in Southeast Asia.

Hajjar, with a team of researchers, will study the impacts that community forestry has had on preventing deforestation while enhancing local livelihoods dependent on those forests. Researchers include professor Matt Betts, associate professors Robert Kennedy and Jamon Van Den Hoek from Geography, and assistant professor Samuel Bell from Applied Economics, as well as participating organizations the Spatial Informatics Group and the Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC).

“Scholars and practitioners have long sought answers to the question: what institutional arrangements -such as particular policies, organizational structures, informal norms and rules- are the best way to balance the two, often competing, objectives of rural development and forest conservation?” Hajjar says.

Case studies show that community forest management, where some degree of forest rights and responsibilities is transferred to local communities, can be an effective form of decentralized forest governance but long-term success and sustainability is variable.

“Our project will identify the conditions that lead to positive community forest management outcomes, like increased forest cover, biodiversity, or local incomes, and the contexts and arrangements that lead to substantial trade-offs across Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia,” Hajjar says.

In an unprecedented scale of analysis, this project will investigate and model the impacts of changes in community forest management institutional arrangements on forest conditions and livelihoods.

Using spatial datasets, researchers will test the hypotheses that community forest management is more likely to maintain and restore forest cover and biodiversity and enhance community livelihoods relative to forests that national governments manage. However, they expect that the magnitude of these impacts will be affected by the types of rights that communities can exercise over their forests and how secure those rights are. They also expect that impacts will be affected by baseline social conditions, like poverty levels and distance to markets, and baseline ecological conditions, like forest degradation and agricultural suitability. The researchers are hoping to additionally uncover the feedback mechanisms that drive this social-ecological system towards positive outcomes.

“With our research design, we can test to see if a positive feedback loop is driving social-ecological outcomes. Since communities now have some rights over those forests, we can see if communities are benefiting from more forest products and services associated with improving forest condition,” Hajjar says. “That, in turn, could incentivize them to continue to manage the forest sustainably and lead to better forest conditions.”

The result will be generalizable models that recognize feedbacks between forest conditions and livelihoods under community forest management. The goal is to produce models capable of predicting landscape and livelihood changes at various spatial and temporal scales under changing institutional drivers and ecological conditions.

The project will also train two PhD students, a master’s student and a postdoctoral fellow, in data science, qualitative methods and modeling. Course materials will be developed to bring socio-environmental modeling exercises into the classroom at Oregon State and at partner universities in Cambodia. Open access user-friendly datasets, maps and models will be available for scholars and practitioners working on environmental governance systems in the U.S. and beyond. Finally, policy briefs will be produced to inform ongoing debates about community forestry in SE Asia.

“This work will be of interest to governments and organizations promoting local governance of natural resources, including in the U.S., where forests under community management are increasing in number, and in low- and middle-income countries where communities manage over 25% of forests,” Hajjar says.