The title might be 1950s, but the content of Trees to Know in Oregon by FES professor Edward C. Jensen (Oregon State University, Corvallis, 2010; $18) is timeless. Now in its eleventh iteration, this 152-page field guide to Oregon trees is no less essential than it was when it was first published 60 years ago. The new revision is just more beautiful, more current, and better-produced than ever.  Click here to order.

A fungal disease attacking Douglas-fir trees along the Pacific Northwest coast is intensifying and may be linked to a warmer climate and extensive planting of Douglas-fir on logged tracts, new Oregon State University research suggests. 

If only the ingenuity of genetic engineers were unleashed, we would likely see innovative approaches to the production of energy from non-food organisms, including switchgrass, trees and algae. But as Steven Strauss, professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University and an expert in genetic engineering of plants, has pointed out, regulators' approach to such sources of energy make field trials and commercialisation unfeasible.

FES professor Mark Harmon was quoted in a recent story about biomass power that appeared in The Seattle Times.  Mark Harmon, a climate researcher at Oregon State University, said forests in the Northern Hemisphere on balance are always expanding. So crediting biomass for carbon sequestered in new trees amounts to double counting, he contends.  Harmon said he believes biomass has the potential to worsen climate change for years before it helps. While some debris from logging is burned deliberately, much of it is left to decompose slowly.