The aim of the Pacific Northwest Permanent Study Plot Program (PNW-PSP) is to study and quantify the long-term dynamics of forest vegetation. We manage more than 140 plot installations across a diversity of forest types in Oregon and Washington. These include coastal forests of spruce and hemlock, Douglas-fir-dominated forests of the western Cascades, higher-elevation forests of mountain hemlock and silver fir, and ponderosa pine forests in Central Oregon.

The Global Trophic Cascades Program is a research and educational program with the purpose of investigating the role of predators in structuring ecological communities. This program puts special emphasis on the role of potential keystone species in top-down community regulation, with linkages to biodiversity via trophic cascades. OSU Distiguished Professor Bill Ripple is the director of the program.

The FoLIAGe Research Group studies the relationship between forests and livelihoods, and how various governance mechanisms and institutions, including policies, laws, norms, and markets, shape that relationship. Working around the world, we take a multi-level governance approach in our research, from the local scale with community and collaborative forestry, all the way up to the international scale with mechanisms like REDD+ and FLEGT, and how these different scales interact to impact people and forests.