Publications

All Forest Service publications adhere to high standards of scientific integrity. However, science and information can be communicated and distilled in various ways depending upon audience and context. Treesearch and Understory are separate catalogues for sharing a range of content, described below. If you would like to search our entire site collection, please use the site search box on the top right of the page.

Treesearch

Each year, Forest Service scientists collaborate with one another, scientists from partner institutions, and with resource managers to write and publish thousands of peer reviewed publications in hundreds of scientific journals plus books, conference proceedings, and Forest Service reports. Research Stations also produce a variety of science synthesis publications that provide plain-language topic summaries and pathways to in-depth research. Each of these scholarly publications are available for free in the Treesearch collection of publications, now offering nearly 60,000 full text documents.

Search the Treesearch catalog by author, title, publication year or keywords–or for those that are published in the Forest Service research series, by the station, series and number. Each publication comes with an abstract, citation information, and a link to download the full text document.

Understory

Forest Service Research & Development is in the business of producing usable science. As with any organization, the Research branch also produces many reports, guides, agendas, notes, brochures, and related materials that help illuminate and guide our strategic planning and implementation, business and sustainability practices, annual activities and accomplishments, and more. These documents adhere to rigorous quality assurance standards yet are not subject to the traditional scientific peer review process.