Chirped fiber Bragg gratings (CFBGs) have been extensively employed as dispersion compensation element in mode-locked fiber lasers. However, multiple functions of CFBG in fiber lasers have not been studied adequately. Here, triple functions of CFBG, dispersion compensation, distributed reflection performance, and stabilizing mode-locked operation, are experimentally investigated. Firstly, the generation of dissipative solitons (DSs) in an all-normal-dispersion Yb-doped fiber laser is reported, while the mode-locked operation is proved to be insufficiently stable. In order to improve performance of the laser, a conventional solitons (CSs) fiber laser is obtained by inserting a CFBG with large anomalous dispersion into the laser cavity. Besides, the distributed reflection performance of CFBG is researched and a wavelength-tunable fiber laser with tuning range of center wavelength from 1033.5 to 1035.5 nm is achieved. It is no doubt that our work opens up venues to create wavelength tunable Yb-doped fiber laser systems with extremely high stability. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.