We are writing to share our deep concern that the proposed budget appropriations (page 18 in link) for the US Forest Service Research and Development program is $0. Although the Forest Inventory and Analysis Program and Joint Fire Science Program may be partly continued under a different program, the rest of the R&D budget items will likely be dropped. This would very likely result in the end of research and operations on the Penobscot Experimental Forest (PEF) for the first time since its establishment in 1950.
The PEF contains some of the longest running continuously monitored silviculture studies in the country and has provided key information to guide research and management decision making across Maine and the northeastern US. Seventy-five years of hard work and investment in these projects and their long-term outcomes are all in jeopardy. Here is a recent example of how USFS R&D is helping across the country.
We strongly urge you to share your discontent with the proposed budget cut and to contact your representatives to express your support of USFS R&D, particularly the experimental forest network. Mainers can contact Senator Collins here.
Please do what you can and reach out with any questions.
Sincerely,
Adam Daigneault, Director of the School of Forest Resources and E.L. Giddings Associate Professor of Forest Policy & Economics
Jay Wason, Chair of the Penobscot Experimental Forest Research Operations Team and Associate Professor of Forest Ecosystem Physiology in the School of Forest Resources
Keith Kanoti, Manager of the University Forests