Center for Research on Sustainable Forests 2020 Annual Report

FY20 saw exciting changes in CRSF with several new initiatives launched, while progress continues on many other ongoing efforts. In particular, FY20 saw the start of two National Science Foundation funded and CRSF-led research projects. The first is the INSPIRES project, a multi-year research collaboration between Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont focused on harnessing Big Data to better understand and forecast the region’s forest given current as well as future uncertainties. The other effort was a successful Phase 3 reboot of the National Science Foundation Industry-University Collaborative Research Center, Center for Advanced Forestry System (CAFS), for which I have served as Director since 2016. CAFS provides direct connections among several additional universities across the United States, including North Carolina State University, Oregon State University, Purdue University, University of Georgia, University of Idaho, and University of Washington, as well as to forest industry partners. Phase 3 of CAFS will be a five-year effort and, I hope, will lead to the successful graduation of the IUCRC