The Forest Encyclopedia Network (FEN) is a project begun in 2002 by scientists working for the US Forest Service. Today it is edited and maintained by one of the original founders, Michael Rauscher, now retired from the Forest Service. The project initially received a grant to further its efforts; it is not clear how it is being sustained today. Multiple contributors, both from the Federal sector and academia, write sections on primarily the US southern forest, its management, ecology, pests, diseases, and more. The FEN is peer‐reviewed, and every article includes relevant citations. Introductory pages note that the product is in its initial stages of development, and indeed, much of the hoped‐for content has not yet been added.
The audience is assumed to be natural resource professionals and those who are not natural resource professionals. The overall goal is to utilize the Web to disseminate scientific information widely. It also aims to “provide research information in a form that is easy to apply to the daily work of land managers, forest landowners, and other researchers”. Eventually, the editors hope to cover all of forest science, a very ambitious goal. The FEN is a worthy effort, but it may be trying to do too many things at once. It is a work in progress.
FEN is a sometimes awkward mix of didactic and scientific information. For example, some messages to contributors are left open to all readers. Here is one example of this: Placeholder: write this paragraph so that it highlights the take‐home messages for this section. (See www.forestencyclopedia.net/p/p860. It is also over‐organized, with up to four navigation bars appearing on one Web page, all of them pointing to different levels of hierarchies within the work. The link to Indexes at the top of the page bar is intriguing, but the link on the page pointed‐to goes nowhere. However, the table of contents does seem to be a usable tool. Five small icons on the upper‐left of most pages are for printing, printing from a new window, editing status, viewing published version of content, and viewing references. The printing function is awkward, as a request to print one page only is translated to mean one encyclopedia page, which may require several sheets of paper. However, it is possible to print as PDF from the icon that opens the article in a new window. The pervasive emphasis and explanation about the technology employed – Web linking, primarily – is dated, as users are by now thoroughly familiar with the Web. However, most recent updates are clearly noted, and references are plentiful.
Search from the basic search box works very well. Expected results are returned; for example, a search on “Pacific northwest” turned up 98 documents with the phrase highlighted in the text. The Advanced Search is currently broken, returning the cryptic message “search URI too long” on a white screen.
FEN extracts many of its articles from two published works. One major source is the Southern Forest Resource Assessment which is available in print in many libraries as well as online at www.srs.fs.usda.gov/sustain/. The second major source is Southern Forest Science: Past, Present and Future, also in print in many libraries and online at www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/gtr/gtr_srs075.pdf. FEN is building six online encyclopedias, which is why it's called an “encyclopedia network”. The six, in various states of completion, are the Encyclopedia of Southern Appalachian Forest Ecosystems; Encyclopedia of Southern Forest Science; Encyclopedia Forest Environmental Threats; Encyclopedia of Southern Fire Science; Encyclopedia of Southern Bioenergy; and the Encyclopedia of Southern Pine Beetle. Additionally, the major areas of coverage in southern forest science are listed as Landscape Condition and History, Ecology and Environment, Resource Management, Products, Values, and Law, and Forest Health Protection. Only Resource Management and Forest Health Protection are ready for the user. All of this is authoritative scientific information, but the manner in which it is presented may not be optimum. A Wiki might be easier for the user to navigate. In addition, some graphics are in need of updating – one that shows US oil imports is dated 2002. With climate change fast progressing, the impact on forests must be major, and it is important to have the most current data. Many excellent photographs illustrate articles, however.
Overall, the Forest Encyclopedia Network is a tool that high school students and lower‐division undergraduates might use to research forests in the southern US. Scientists may prefer to read the two major sources, Southern Forest Resource Assessment and Southern Forest Science: Past, Present and Future. The resource could benefit from removing some of its scaffolding from the public view.
