T
T
T

Experimental Forests and Ranges

Forest Service experimental forests and ranges support our economy, communities, and health and safety.

Together, they form the largest and longest-running natural resource research network in the Nation. Scientists conduct research on more than 80 network sites, some that have operated for over a century.  

At these sites, scientists and land managers can see how forests function and change over time. They test how management actions affect real landscapes. Decades of data gathered from these sites inform how managers care for the land and serve the American public.

Experimental forests and ranges provide something few institutions can sustain—long-term, field-based laboratories that foster connection among scientists and managers. Only with sites like these can we study the land at the scale and duration needed to understand change. And as conditions rapidly shift, these sites ensure managers can sustain healthy, productive, and resilient forests and grasslands.  

Scientists at experimental forests and ranges address pressing needs.

A person reaches up to a pine tree to affix a device that will repel mountain pine beetles.

Decades of data from the Fraser Experimental Forest in Colorado show how mountain pine beetle outbreaks affect nitrogen cycling. When these beetles swarm a forest, they feed on trees and release nitrogen into soil. Too much nitrogen in soil can harm seedlings, foster invasive species, and spur toxic algal blooms in nearby waterways. By tracking nitrogen cycles, Forest Service scientists not only narrate the ecological history of a landscape but also give managers immediate, practical data to inform their actions.

 

 

A person wearing a hard hat and yellow jacket adjusts a terrestrial laser scanner.

Scientists at the Silas Little Experimental Forest in New Jersey are studying how fire embers move through landscapes and communities near forests. Embers—small lumps of smoldering fuel that travel in front of a fire—are a major driver of wildfire spread and structure ignition. However, current fire behavior models struggle to predict how they move. Findings are helping managers pinpoint fire risk, predict fire spread, and protect communities. And while this research is happening in New Jersey, it will benefit people living in fire-prone landscapes across the Nation.

 

 

A person in a hard hat explains something to three other people while standing in a forest.

Two nearly identical streams at the Caspar Creek Experimental Watershed in California give scientists a unique opportunity: they can assess management actions by altering one stream and comparing it to the other. Since the 1960s, scientists here have evaluated how timber harvest affects streamflow, erosion, and sediment transport. This research has helped inform best management practices for logging. And a longstanding partnership with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection means this research benefits forests on all ownerships in the state. 

 

 

a few people stand in the midground of a picture of dry rangeland, blue sky, and a barbed wire fence.

Scientists at the arid Desert Experimental Range in Utah study grazing and rangeland management. The Agency founded the site during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, as unrestricted grazing had left public lands degraded, eroded, and invaded by harmful species. Studies here have shown that winter grazing by sheep harms grasses less than spring grazing. Other studies show that native plants may not be adapted to the rainier conditions the area has been experiencing. 

 

 

Experimental Forest and Range Locations

Select Publications

Understory Publications

Last updated August 18, 2026
Return to top