[Excerpted from article introduction] From 1990 to 2000 a massive outbreak of spruce beetles (Dendroctonus rufipennis) caused a die-off of spruce trees (Picea spp.) across more than 1.19 million ha of forests in Alaska. This natural disturbance was most pronounced among forests in south-central Alaska where a variety of research studies were initiated to examine both the causes of this outbreak and its far reaching effects on human, plant, and wildlife communities in the region. The majority of these studies have only recently been completed and few have been published. Information from these studies, however, are of considerable interest to the public, land managers, and scientists alike as the recent spruce beetle outbreak was both the largest recorded from North America and the most significant disturbance event in a terrestrial ecosystem in Alaska since the Good Friday earthquake of 1964. The articles included in this special issue of Forest Ecology and Management were invited from the 69 papers originally presented at a symposium, A changing Alaskan ecosystem: the effects of spruce beetle outbreaks and associated management practices on forest ecosystems of south-central Alaska held February 2004 in Homer, Alaska.