Celebrating National Pollinator Week
On June 19, 2018, more than 50 people gathered in Asheville, North Carolina to experience pollinators and native plants. They… More
Family Forests Are the Ties That Bind the Landscape
Family forests have an enormous capacity to provide ecosystem services such as clean air and water, timber and nontimber forest products, wildlife habitat, and scenic beauty and recreation — benefits that stretch far beyond property lines. According to USDA Forest Service research, sustaining these services depends on not only the condition of individual family forests… More
The State of the Nation’s Forests
Forests are constantly changing with weather, disturbance, and conversion to other land uses, but how do we know if year-to-year changes are just a one-off or part of a larger shift? Annual summaries of forest health are key to our understanding, say the editors and authors that produced Forest Health Monitoring: National Status, Trends, and… More
Coastal Plain Fish Diversity and Introduced Small Wood
Coastal plain streams don’t always have swirling eddies or meandering bends. “They can look more like drainage ditches than natural streams,” says USDA Forest Service technician Ken Sterling. Agriculture, flood abatement, and residential development have all contributed to stream straightening in this region. The result? Streams incise and downcut, like a canyon. “These streams are… More
Forest Service Technical Engineer of the Year
It is easy to understand why Pikeville, Tennessee native Jason Anderson was nominated for and awarded the USDA Forest Service’s 2017 Technical Engineer of the Year. Anderson is the Southern Research Station’s assistant station engineer. He received the award for his accomplishments in implementing new engineering technologies and his development of long-term research infrastructure for invasive… More
Where to Grow Woody Bioenergy Crops?
Demand for bioenergy is expected to grow – as much as 10 times larger than present. Woody crops such as poplar or loblolly pine have the potential to fuel this growth. But where should such crops be planted? How to minimize transportation costs? Where are the opportunity zones? Where are the risks? USDA Forest Service… More
Forests Supply Water to Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico’s forests are still recovering from Hurricane Maria. Local scientists estimate that one out of five trees in the El Yunque National Forest were lost during or after the storm. Widespread forest restoration and monitoring efforts are underway. But that work isn’t focused on just the trees in those forests — water supply is an important ecosystem… More
Coweeta Technicians Travel to Puerto Rico
Electric blue squares dotted the urban landscape. From the descending plane, USDA Forest Service visitors thought they might be swimming pools. Alas, they were tarps covering the roofs of homes and keeping leaks at bay on rainy days. These tarps were the first sign of lingering damage from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Broken roads, twisted… More
Projections of Future Climate and Annual Runoff
Hydrologists have traditionally relied on historic precipitation data to estimate broad-scale runoff. “Rainfall was always number one,” says USDA Forest Service scientist Ge Sun. “But things are changing and getting more complicated.” Sun co-authored a recent modeling study that investigated how other climate factors might influence future changes in runoff. The researchers were intrigued by… More
Southern Roots in New York
Urban-rural connections are quite important for land and forest management in the South. From the early 1900s to about 1970, many African Americans migrated from southern farms to industrializing northern cities, and since then many have returned to their homelands. As a USDA Forest Service researcher, I’ve studied African American forest landownership since 1999. I… More
Reptiles and Amphibians Unharmed by Prescribed Fires in Early Growing Season
Amphibians and reptiles tend to be most active during the spring and summer, when it’s warmer. A recent USDA Forest Service study compared how herpetofauna respond to prescribed fires conducted during the growing season – when vegetation is actively growing – versus those in dormant season months. “Historically, prescribed burning has been limited to the… More