Understanding the Complex Dynamics of Forest Ecosystems
An Interview with Professor Tony Cheng
Tony Cheng is a professor in the Department of Forest & Rangeland Stewardship at and is Director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute (CFRI) at Colorado State University. Tony’s primary research interests are in forest governance, policy, and administration, with a focus on collaborative approaches to promote resilient social-ecological systems linked to forest landscapes. In his capacity as Director of CFRI, Tony oversees programs to develop, compile, and apply current knowledge through collaborative, adaptive management approaches to achieve forest restoration and wildfire hazard reduction goals.
What trends are you seeing in forestry research right now?
It varies regionally and by topic. In the western U.S., in the forest ecology space, there seems to be a lot of work on disturbance interactions — the combined effect of changing climate, fire, insect epidemics, and human forest land use. The general story is that each disturbance can exacerbate the impact of subsequent disturbances, to the point where some places that were once forested are not regenerating to be forested again for the foreseeable future. This is especially the case with so-called dry forest types — those species that…
