Winter 2025: Solsona, Spain Applications are currently closed 

Current trends such as global change will require natural resource disciplines to expand their scientific basis and possibly shift their dominant paradigms to adopt a broader view of the systems they manage as complex social-ecological systems. Explore forests as complex adaptive systems in an international context through this graduate field course that has previously been offered in Oregon, Canada, and Italy.

This graduate-only field course will be held in Solsona, Catalan, Spain. Following an online course, students will travel to engage their new skills in practice. Past courses have focused on forest restoration and management as well as forest degradation in old-growth forests. Throughout the week-long field program, there will also be an emphasis on collaboration, both in the exercises students will complete and through informal research presentations by the leaders and students to receive input and feedback on projects.

Students will be asked to expand their scientific basis by borrowing theories and concepts from other disciplines, such as complexity theory, as they grapple with the issues of management of natural resources in a time of global change. Students need training in these paradigms and will learn to incorporate concepts such as thresholds, uncertainty, and cross-scale interactions into management or restoration prescriptions. This course provides field exercises that link theoretical concepts from complexity science to applied forest management and restoration issues. The groups will complete a series of exercises, which challenge students to apply theoretical concepts from complexity science in real world settings. Each exercise ends in group presentations and class discussions. Exercises are designed to build on each other and assess different aspects of the overall learning goals.

• Faculty Leader: Klaus Puettmann, Professor of Forest Ecology and Silviculture
• Coordinator: Rachael Fahrenbach, International Programs Director. Contact Rachael with any questions about the course, application process, funding or other logistics.

Faculty-led programs are open to all OSU students!
College of Forestry faculty-led programs are open to every Oregon State University student — from all majors and campuses, including Corvallis, Ecampus, OSU Cascades and dual-enrolled community college students. These short-term experiences bring together a vibrant mix of learners: graduate and undergraduate students, online and in-person, from all backgrounds and walks of life. That diversity makes every trip richer — new ideas, new perspectives, and new connections that make your Oregon State experience truly global.