Center for Advanced Forestry Systems

The Center for Advanced Forestry Systems (CAFS) is sponsored by the National Science Foundation as part of the Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC) Program within the Engineering Directorate. The NSF Center for Advanced Forestry System is designed to foster collaborative research between universities and forest industry that will increase the productivity, profitability and sustainability of plantation forest management. The overall goal is to facilitate the development and application of forest science and technology needed by forest industry to remain globally competitive.

Example of a wide crown ideotype on a RW20.

The NSF grants to the universities that are CAFS sites are awarded in five-year increments. Starting in January 2020, NC State is currently in Phase III, the last possible funding phase. The goal of the last phase is to focus on national-level projects that help coordinate activities across multiple universities to better leverage resources. New projects are in development for Phase III  and will focus on nationally relevant topics such as:

  • Assessing and mapping regional variation in site productivity based on soils

  • Modeling forest response to early stand treatments

  • Identifying type and level of response to forest fertilization

The University of Maine took the lead for multi-site CAFS program management for Phase III after which CAFS will “graduate” from the NSF IUCRC program. Discussions are underway among CAFS members and university scientists to develop support for a long-term structure to continue cross-university and cooperative projects.