Idaho Forest, Wildlife, and Range Experiment Station Collection

Contents: About the Idaho Forest, Wildlife, and Range Experiment Station | About the Collection | Tech

About the Idaho Forest, Wildlife, and Range Experiment Station

The Idaho Forest, Wildlife, and Range Experiment Station began in 1939 and has played an important role in the University of Idaho’s land-grant mission since its inception. The Station is charged by the state of Idaho to provide scientific and natural resources management knowledge and tools on issues relevant to Idaho. Currently, the Experiment Station functions as the research arm of the University of Idaho College of Natural Resources, delivering university-led research on a broad range of topics, including Idaho’s forests, hydrology, the human use of natural resources, environmental policy, rangeland, fisheries, and wildlife.

“For over 80 years, the University of Idaho Experimental Forest has provided a working forest classroom in which students can work and learn. The management units, natural areas, and outdoor classrooms provide the connection to field-based education, faculty, and graduate research. College of Natural Resources public outreach workshops and field tours help to support and fulfill the land-grant mission of the University of Idaho: research, teaching, and service.”¹

There are multiple experiment stations in Idaho:

• McCall Field Campus
• Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
• 10,000+ acres of Experimental Forests
• Taylor Wilderness Research Station

In the early 20th century, the U.S. Forest Service “created a network of experimental forests and ranges” in order to “help us understand these lands and how best to manage them to be healthy, resilient ecosystems.”²

In 2005, the Title 38 of the Idaho Code and Statutes was updated with the following: “The dean of the School of Forestry of the University of Idaho shall be the director of the forest, wildlife, and range experiment station of the state of Idaho. The said experiment station shall be under the control of the state board of regents of the University of Idaho who shall have the power and whose duty it shall be to appoint or designate such assistants and employees as may be necessary, and to fix their compensation.”³

About the Collection

The Idaho Forest Wildlife and Range Experiment Station Collection Digital Collection is comprised of over 200 documents and reports created by faculty in the Forestry Department of the College of Natural Resources. The publication series represents some, but not all, of the scholarship and outreach of the Station over a 60 year period, dating from the early 1950s to the present.

These series include Bulletins, Notes, Technical Notes, Annual Reports, and more. One can clearly recognize the strong dependency between Idaho’s economic fortunes and its utilization of natural resources. Much of the early writing concerns Idaho’s forest products industry and issues in managing outdoor recreation. Simultaneously, the conservation ethic - critical in sustainable management of natural resources - factors into these publications in strong and notable ways, growing over the course of the Experiment Station’s history.

A gift from the Idaho Forest Group helped support the creation of this collection. The University of Idaho Library retains physical copies of all material digitized here in the University’s Archives.