The Northwest Forest
Plan (NFP) has established new directions in forest management,
which federal agencies must implement. Federal land-management
agencies are actively developing new management strategies in
order to comply with the Plan. State forest lands, although
not under the jurisdiction of the NFP, are being managed under
a new "structure-based management" approach. Much of the underlying
information needed to implement this approach overlaps with
research questions central to implementing the NFP.
The Cooperative Forest Ecosystem Research (CFER) program
is a multidisciplinary, integrated
research program, which is guided by a mission 
to develop and convey research information to land managers
in western Oregon.
Acquisition of information that supports implementation of
the NFP is a top priority of CFER. Development of a research
direction to meet these information needs was the impetus
for establishing the CFER program.
CFER was initiated as a cooperative program among
the USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center (FRESC),
Oregon State University (OSU), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
and the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), and has a rich background
of events that has shaped its development. In addition to program
cooperators, CFER's program structure
consists of a steering committee,
the research team, and an information
exchange program.
