I/UCRC Phase II: University of Idaho Membership in Center for Advanced Forestry Systems

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Forest trees provide a wide range of traditional and advanced renewable materials including wood, paper, power, composites, polymers, and liquid fuels. Demand for these products is increasing due to population growth, increasing standards of living, and an increased recognition that forests will produce these products indefinitely if managers maintain the quality of soil in which trees are grown. Yet at as demand for renewable wood-based products increases, the commercial forest land base is shrinking. Meeting increased demands for raw wood products from a shrinking land base requires increased production capacity through advanced forestry practices. There is an important opportunity in the Inland Northwest (INW) where both the level of past investments and environmental constraints have limited gains in silvicultural systems. University of Idaho has joined nine other universities in the Center for Advanced Forestry Systems (CAFS) with the objective of educating a diversity of students to improve the productive capacity of our forests and meet societies increasing demand for future green, renewable products.Cooperative research links forest managers with universities to address a wide range of genetic and cultural problems. INW forest land managers are faced with numerous questions about constrains on forest productivity and the productive capacity of our forests under intense management regimes. The University of Idaho is uniquely situated in the region to address those questions in a rigorous and efficient manner. Such collaborative research programs solve problems that are most relevant to local land managers. Continued advancement requires work at the molecular to the ecosystems scales, and over an equally broad range of time scales considering the longevity of forest stand development. CAFS allows regional cooperative research programs to take advantage of progress made nationally to collectively advance forestry systems nationwide. Research will focus on increasing the carrying capacity of INW forests by studying the constraints to growth at high density and developing improved varieties for commercial reforestation. Recent advances in genomics may significantly shorten the tree breeding cycle allowing forest managers to apply genetic improvements to commercial forests much more quickly than previously possible. The exposure of industrial managers to a wider set of ideas leads to more rapid adoption of advanced technologies, which increases competitiveness of our forest products industries.