The Wind River Experimental Forest (http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/exforests/wind-river/index.shtml) has a century-long legacy of science. It was established in 1932 by Thornton T. Munger, who later became the first director of the Pacific Northwest Research Station, and who arrived at Wind River in 1909. The Wind River is often referred to as the “cradle of forestry research for the Pacific Northwest.” In In 1994, a standard construction canopy crane was installed in the old-growth forest to study processes operating at the interfaces between vegetation and the atmosphere. Major research at this facility addressed forest carbon and nutrient cycling, biological diversity and ecosystem functioning, forest health and protection, monitoring of climate and climate variability, ground validation and testing of new remote sensing technology, and tree physiology and growth. Studies are taking place in the old-growth forest, and in the younger stands and plantations throughout Wind River. The Wind River is best known for its spectacular and diverse old-growth forests of Douglas-fir and western hemlock. Other tree species in the forest include western redcedar and Pacific silver, grand, and noble firs. Understory trees include Pacific yew, vine maple, Pacific dogwood, and red alder. Much of the forest consists of stands more than 400 years old. Younger forests include stands that were established after burns in the late 1840s and then again after the 1902 Yacolt Burn. Many shrubs grow in the forest understory, including salal, Oregon-grape, red and big huckleberries, and west coast rhododendron. Dozens of plant species grow on the forest floor, including queencup beadlily, vanilla leaf, bracken fern, beargrass, twinflower, trillium, and little pipsissewa. Huckleberries and beargrass are particularly abundant at higher elevations. Northern spotted owls, listed as a threatened species, live in parts of the forest. Other large birds in the forest are goshawks and pileated woodpeckers. Winter wrens, brown creepers, dark-eyed juncos, red-breasted nuthatches, and hairy woodpeckers are a few of the other bird species. Average annual precipitation is about 2,540 mm annually, occurring as rain or snow during fall, winter, and spring. Summers are warm and dry. Soils are primarily volcanic in origin with some colluvial and glacial till. The Wind River site will become the NEON Pacific Northwest Core site and will be instrumented with the full range of measurements described at neoninc.org. The trip will be led by Dr. Jerry Franklin (University of Washington) and Dr. Hank Loesher (NEON, Inc)