THE NORTHERN Lakes Forest Research Center was established July 1, 1946 at Rhinelander, Wisconsin, for the specific purpose of studying forest management problems in northern Wisconsin. It is a part of the Lake States Forest Experiment Station, St. Paul, Minnesota, one of the nine regional forest experiment stations of the United States Forest Service. The work of this research center is correlated with that of three others in Minnesota and Michigan by the regional experiment station in a manner designed to bring about regional solutions of the problems of managing different forest types. The regional approach is necessary since forest type boundaries have no relation to state boundaries, but are largely determined by climate and soils, and modified by fire and cutting.