Northern Forest Center Announces $1-Million NSF Award for Regional Forest Resource Development

The National Science Foundation award will support the new Coalition of Northern Forest Innovation and Research (CONFIR), which aims to accelerate innovations in forest ecosystem management and forest products and open new markets that depend on thriving forests in northern New England. The work will be carried out with researchers from Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, including Dr. Aaron Weiskittel, director of the University of Maine’s Center for Research on Sustainable Forests and University of Maine’s Forest Industry Business Development Manager Shane O’Neill.

“This new investment allows taking our key research innovations in precision forestry and ecosystem services valuation to full commercialization, which opens new potential possibilities for this ecologically and economically important resource for this region,” said Dr. Weiskittel.

For more information on the project, see the Northern Forest Center press release here, and the UMaine press release here.