SRS technical information specialist Claire Payne worked with other individual members to develop the award-winning forestry webinar series.

The Two Chiefs’ awards highlight and acknowledge existing partnerships and projects where employees from the Forest Service, NRCS, State Forestry Agencies and Conservation District work collaboratively to support conservation and forest stewardship.

The partners in the forestry webinars project collaborated with scientists and managers to produce five webinars in 2011 designed to reach policy makers, federal, state, and private natural resource and conservation specialists, investment specialists, master gardeners, industry and conservation leaders, and landowners. Two webinars focused on the Southern Forest Futures Project, and three webinars addressed the identification, control, and management of invasive plants in southern forests.

In developing the webinar partnership, members stressed the importance of building relationships, finding common ground, and developing contacts in an effort to reach wider audiences, including people who work with small-scale landowners, minority landowners, and limited-resource farmers.

2011 webinars included:

• Dave Wear, SRS, and John Greis, SR -- Southern Forest Futures Project;
• Jim Miller and Erwin Chambliss, SRS, and Nancy Loewenstein, Auburn University -- Most Prevalent Invasive Plants in Southern Forests —Woody Plants; and Most Prevalent Invasive Plants in Southern Forests — Non-Woody Plants;
• Jim Miller, SRS, and Stephen Enloe, Auburn University -- Management Guide of Invasive Plants of Southern Forests

Over 900 people participated in the 2011 webinars. Survey data indicate that an average of 90 percent of participants were likely to adopt knowledge gained from the webinars in the next 12 months, potentially affecting management of more than 49 million acres. Live and archived webinars enable participants to save travel dollars and fuel costs. Eligible participants can also earn continuing education credits for attending live and archived webinars through the Society of American Foresters and, for specific webinars, the International Society for Arboriculture

Individuals involved in the project include:  

• Claire Payne, Southern Research Station;
• George Hernandez, Southern Region;
• Bill Hubbard and Darryl Outlaw, Southern Regional Extension Forestry;
• Bob Bardon, North Carolina State University;
• Eric Taylor and Matt Bonham, Texas AgriLife Extension;
• Gail Brant, Natural Resources Conservation Service; and
• Josh Idassi, North Carolina A&T State University

The partners produced the webinars through the Forestry and Natural Resources Webinar Portal. The SRS Science Delivery Group supported the webinar project.

To view upcoming webinars: www.forestrywebinars.net

To view archived 2011 webinars: www.forestrywebinars.net/previous-webinars

Four to 5 feet long as an adult and covered with a striking pattern of black, brown and beige, the Louisiana pine snake is a rare sight in its native range in east-central Texas and across Louisiana. Craig Rudolph, Forest Service Southern Research Station research ecologist and a member of the reintroduction team, has monitored the species for decades, and concurs with other herpetologists that it well may be one of the rarest snake species in the United States.  Snakes released for the restoration effort are hatched and raised in zoos, and are the offspring of Louisiana pine snakes captured from the wild.

Already listed as threatened in Texas and a candidate for listing under the Federal Endangered Species Act, the Louisiana pine snake population has declined because of alterations to the its native pine longleaf pine habitat and that of its prey.

A nonvenomous species, the Louisiana pine snake spends most of its time underground in burrows of its favorite prey, the Baird’s pocket gopher. The ideal habitat for both species consists of dry, sandy-soiled ridges covered with longleaf pine trees and an open understory of the grasses and forbs the pocket gophers feed on. This habitat largely disappeared due to commercial logging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and subsequent fire suppression.
“Without fire, these upland pine savannahs rapidly develop a midstory that shades out the grassy understory that pocket gophers need,” says Rudolph. “The release site on the Kisatchie, which was intentionally restored for red-cockaded woodpecker habitat, should also support pocket gophers and Louisiana pine snakes.”

Only time will tell whether the Louisiana pine snake can be sustainably restored to longleaf pine ecosystems in its native range. 

Researchers implanted each of the snakes released on May 1 with a passive integrated transponder (PIT) that allows them to be tracked by recorders installed on the site. “So far we’ve not had much success with the recorders, which are dug into the ground in four places on the release site,” says Rudolph. “We’ve recorded activity in the first weeks, but nothing later on. This is not unexpected, since these snakes have a large home range and probably leave the immediate area. We need to get good population estimates for the areas we’ve released in, but the only way to get data is by trapping, which is very time-consuming and expensive.”

The animal’s biology presents another constraint to its survival. While most other snakes produce large clutches of eggs, the Louisiana pine snake lays only three to five eggs, and in captive breeding programs, sometimes only one or two eggs per clutch hatch. This low reproductive rate means that the species might not recover quickly in the wild. Rudolph worries that breeding programs, which rely on the progeny of only 16 founder individuals caught in the wild, may be producing snakes that are not genetically diverse enough to survive when released.
“In the best-case scenario, there would still be Louisiana pine snakes out there that we’ve never caught that can breed with the released snakes,” says Rudolph. “We have traps operating for thousands of trap days a year in Texas, for instance, and haven’t caught a single snake in three years. When we find better ways to monitor our releases, perhaps we’ll find some additional populations.” 

For more information: Craig Rudolph at crudolph1@fs.fed.us or 936-569-7981

Read more in a recent article in Forest Magazine.

Read about the Candidate Conservation Agreement signed in 2004 to protect the Louisiana pine snake on federal lands in Texas and Louisiana.

Today’s celebration highlighted the important contributions of Santee-based research to the management of pine and hardwood forests, prescribed fire, watershed management, wetland ecology, and wildlife management.  Joining the 150 partners, university dignitaries, and policy makers for the Santee anniversary celebration was Dr. James B. Edwards, former Governor of South Carolina and Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Santee, located north of Charleston on the Francis Marion National Forest, is part of the USDA Forest Service’s Southern Research Station (SRS), which is headquartered in Asheville, NC. The experimental forest includes all the major forest types of the southeastern Atlantic Coastal Plain, providing excellent opportunities to conduct research on forest management and soils and water quality and quantity research. Its four watersheds deliver critical information about stream flow, groundwater level, and precipitation in one of the largest undeveloped tracts in the region. The proximity of the Santee to the ocean and to a major expanding urban area makes it unique among experimental forests as a site where scientists can study sea level rise and continued water quality for Berkeley county residents and beyond.

“The Santee and its counterparts in other states address natural resource issues facing the country, including changing weather patterns, the role of forest in carbon cycling, and the development of forest management practices to provide biomass for energy and ensure fresh water resources,” Rob Doudrick, SRS Director, said.  “Today was a great day to celebrate all that we have learned and will continue to learn from the Santee Experimental Forest.”

Experimental forests like the Santee make it possible for the USDA Forest Service to understand the impacts of urbanization, changing and extreme weather patterns, and invasive species for example have on forests, watersheds, and wildlife habitat over time. Long-term research projects are critical since most changes on the landscape occur over a period of time and the relative impacts are not readily understood immediately.

Learn more about the history and research conducted on the Santee Experimental Forest at www.srs.fs.usda.gov/charleston/santeeexperimentalforest/index.html

The prototype version of ForWarn has successfully operated since January 2010 and uses NASA MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite imagery to recognize and track changes in vegetation across the nation, providing a near-real-time view of potential forest disturbance and recovery.  ForWarn uses a web-based map tool, the Forest Change Assessment Viewer, to provide an 8-day coast-to-coast snapshot of the US landscape, interpret images, and create geographically relevant maps.  The viewer allows users to explore and share recent and archived forest disturbance maps.

"ForWarn epitomizes the type of product envisioned when the Threat Assessment Centers were created," says Danny C. Lee, Director of the Eastern Threat Center. "This tool literally puts space-age technology into the hands of forest resource professionals.  It's a remarkable collaborative achievement." The Eastern and Western Threat Centers are jointly supported by the Forest Service's National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, and Research and Development.

The Eastern and Western Threat Centers, NASA Stennis Space Center's Applied Science & Technology Project Office, and other federal and university partners developed ForWarn in response to the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003.  The Act specifies development of a comprehensive National Early Warning System to detect potential catastrophic environmental threats to forests.  ForWarn is a strategic research component of the National Early Warning System and is currently being tested by federal and state forest and natural resource managers throughout the country. 

"We are excited to unveil ForWarn and the Forest Change Assessment Viewer, intuitive products that use advanced technology to provide a current look at forest changes and help focus on-the-ground response efforts," says William Hargrove, Eastern Threat Center lead ForWarn researcher.  "Our goal is to help natural resource managers, scientists, and other decision makers better identify, understand, and react to environmental disturbances. We will continue to refine and update these tools that will help guide activities and resources in impacted areas."

Joe Spruce, lead scientist on this project at NASA Stennis, says that ForWarn provides "the USDA Forest Service and its partners with vital broad-scale information on the location and extent of regionally evident forest disturbances, helping resource managers conduct more detailed aerial and field surveys." He continues, "This effort is precisely the Applied Sciences Program's mission – to move NASA science to operational users for real socioeconomic benefit."

The Eastern and Western Threat Centers are currently offering webinars on ForWarn and additional decision support tools.  Sessions provide a ForWarn overview, highlight a variety of forest disturbances detected during the 2010 and 2011 growing seasons, and feature Eastern and
Western Threat Center scientists demonstrating the tool's ability to retrospectively examine forest disturbances detected during the prior two years. Contact Bill Christie, Eastern Threat Center GIS specialist, (828) 257-4370 or by email at wchristie@fs.fed.us for webinar and online tutorial information.

ForWarn is the result of ongoing cooperation among federal and university partners.  In addition to the Forest Service and NASA, the partnership includes the US Geological Survey; the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and the University of North Carolina Asheville's National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center.

Additional Information

USDA Forest Service Contacts
William Hargrove
Eastern Threat Center Lead ForWarn Researcher
(828) 257-4846, whargrove@fs.fed.us

Perdita Spriggs
Eastern Threat Center Communications
(828) 230-3292, pspriggs@fs.fed.us

NASA Contact
Rebecca Strecker
NASA Public Affairs Office
(228) 688-3249, rebecca.a.strecker@nasa.gov

"This report, for the first time, puts a face on the urban forest resource and what it means to the state in terms of economic and environmental value," said Steven Scott, Tennessee State Forester and head of the Tennessee Division of Forestry, which collected the data for the report. "Perhaps the most significant finding is the immediate impact of urban trees on the use of energy, the savings we get as a result of shade near homes, businesses and industrial areas."

David Nowak, Northern Research Station project leader and research forester, led the pilot study, which sampled trees in all the state's urban area and analyzed their value using a model developed by the Forest Service.

"Urban forests make our cities healthier, more vibrant places to live," said Nowak. "They provide healthy outdoor spaces for our kids, they clean our air and water, and -- as this study shows -- they provide tremendous economic benefits. We must continue our work to protect these critical natural resources."

There are more than 100 million acres of urban forest across the U.S., but a recent study shows that many are in decline.

The Tennessee report includes an extensive assessment of urban forest health, providing information about present damage and potential risks. In addition to nonnative invasive plants, Tennessee urban forests face risks from exotic pests that include the recently discovered thousand cankers disease, which impacts black walnut; hemlock woolly adelgid, which kills eastern and Carolina hemlocks; the Asian longhorned beetle, which kills a wide range of hardwood species; and the emerald ash borer, which decimates ash trees. This last insect was recently documented in East Tennessee.

The Forest Service Inventory and Analysis and Community Forestry Programs partnered with Tennessee Division of Forestry and researchers from the Forest Service Northern Research Station and SRS on the project.

To access the full report in PDF format: http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/40246.

To request this publication by mail, send your name and complete mailing address, with report title, author, and publication number (GTR-SRS-149) to: pubrequest@fs.fed.us

Development of the application is part of the Forest Service's multi-faceted strategy to reduce the impact of nonnative species -- animals, pathogens and plants. 

These foreign invaders deplete water supplies, poison wildlife and livestock, and damage property in urban and rural areas at a cost of about $138 billion annually. Congongrass, nonnative privets, autumn olive and tallowtree are among the most common plants plaguing the South.   

"Invasive plants are one of the greatest threats to our forests and grasslands," said Leslie Weldon, deputy chief for National Forest System. "They damage our environment and economy by destroying native trees and plants and limiting access to recreation areas. This new application provides an opportunity for more land owners, land managers and concerned citizens to join the fight in protecting our lands." 

The Invasive Plants in Southern Forests: Identification and Management application is currently only compatible with Apple products -- iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch -- and available through iTunes. The software provides photos and information that allow users to identify the 56 nonnative plants and plant groups currently invading the forests of the 13 Southern states. Versions for other operating systems are being explored.

A grant from the Southern Research Station funded the application, which was developed by the University of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health. The software is based on Southern Research Station field and management invasive plant guides.

Like the guides, the app divides invasive plants into trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, ferns and forbs and provides identification keys, photos and management recommendations. App users also get simple, on-the-spot options for treating invasive plants. 

Since their release, more than 200,000 copies of the Southern Research Station guides have been distributed.  The plant app is expected to inform many more people about the impact of invasive plants and get them involved in eradication efforts.

"Ultimately we hope this app will give people a new tool to go out and identify invasive plants and map their occurrence," said Southern Research Station Research Ecologist James Miller, who co-authored the application's source guides. "Effective control relies on understanding of species including their biology, their preferred habitats, and how they spread across the landscape. Those are important first steps in stopping and containing the invasions of harmful nonnative plants." 

Future versions of the application will include the ability to directly report new sightings of select species into the Georgia Center's Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System, which provides a quick way to submit photos and report new sightings of invasive plants on the spot throughout the United States.  

Suggestions for improving the application can be emailed to the app's creator, Chuck Bargeron, at cbargero@uga.edu or submitted to the iTunes Website.

For more information on the threat of invasive species, go to the Forest Service's Invasive Species Program page at http://www.fs.fed.us/invasivespecies/

The mission of the U.S. Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. Recreational activities on our lands contribute $14.5 billion annually to the U.S. economy. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world.

Water Supply in the Appalachian Mountains

Over the next 5 years, SRS Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory (Coweeta) scientists and collaborators will receive $460,000 from the NIFA AFRI for a project designed to help predict changes of water supply in the Southern Appalachian region over the course of the 21st century. Coweeta scientists Chelcy Ford, Jim Vose, Kimberly Novick, with University of Minnesota scientists Paul Bolstad and Steven Brantley, received the grant, with Ford as principal investigator.

The funded project is a mix of basic and applied research centered in the Southern Appalachian headwaters, which provide high-quality water for drinking and recreation for more than 18 million people in the region. Though the relationship between forest condition and water supply is generally understood, most current knowledge is based on experiments conducted on a fairly narrow range of forest age classes and is not adequate for estimating impacts from landscape-level changes due to climate variation and land use shifts.

The newly funded project will address this gap by collecting hydrologic data from eastern deciduous forests ranging from early succession to old-growth, with the ultimate purpose of improving the ability to forecast future water budgets in relation to forest conditions in major watersheds.

Effects of Harvest Strategies on Biodiversity

Research ecologist Susan Loeb from the SRS Upland Hardwoods Ecology and Management unit and university cooperators received a 5-year NIFA AFRI grant of $479,000 to look at how the size and distribution of early successional habitat patches in the mountains of North Carolina affect biodiversity. The project is a cooperative study among SRS, Western Carolina University, Clemson University, and the Nantahala National Forest, with Loeb as the principal investigator.

Early successional habitat (http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/compass/2012/01/03/sustaining-young-forest-communities/ ) can be defined as forest where recent disturbance has resulted in an open or absent canopy. Many species of plants and animals depend on relatively open, early successional habitats, but the past few decades have seen a decline in these types of areas due to the abandonment of farms, development, and the suppression of natural disturbances such as fire, beaver activity, and flooding.

For the funded project, researchers will look at whether using timber harvest strategies to create patches of early successional habitat can increase the abundance of early successional species in a stand while maintaining timber yield and creating favorable public perception. Different harvest patterns and intensities will be used; researchers will focus on birds, bats, and plants as important indicators of biodiversity, and will use a variety of methods to measure public perception of the treatments.

The results will provide managers of both public and private lands with some publicly acceptable and economically feasible strategies to restore early successional species to the Southern Appalachian landscape.

The prescribed fire is part of a multi-year research study by the Bent Creek Experimental Forest, a silviculture research unit of the Southern Research Station. The project will help researchers better understand the effects and benefits of prescribed fire in mountain-hardwood forests.

The Forest Service will conduct the one-day prescribed burn on National Forest land in Buncombe County. Agency personnel will perform follow-up measures the following two days.

The Forest Service's National Forests in North Carolina will plan and supervise the prescribed burn. The agency will notify the public when the decision is made to conduct the burn. The Forest Service will close area trails and roads the day before the prescribed burn.

"The safety of the public and firefighters is the number one priority," said Riva Duncan, fire management officer with the National Forests in North Carolina. "The public is asked to heed signs posted at trailheads and roads and to stay away from burn sites and closed roads and trails."

The prescribed fire will occur when environmental conditions permit; wind and humidity are key factors in fire behavior, safety and smoke control. The Forest Service is required to meet state air quality requirements and will conduct smoke modeling to reduce the possible effects of smoke emissions. The proper personnel and equipment will be on site during the prescribed burn.

Scientists at Bent Creek will compare the effects of the dormant season (January - early March) prescribed burn with a growing season (June-July) burn to learn how timing affects hardwood regeneration, herbaceous plants, fuel consumption, reptile and amphibian populations, and breeding bird communities.

The agency will burn three units this winter and three other units in the summer. The remaining units will not be burned to serve as a control or reference for assessing how fire affects hardwood ecosystems. The overall study site consists of nine adjoining units, about 12 acres each, totaling nearly 120 acres. The Bent Creek study includes repeated prescribed burning at approximately three-to-five year intervals, depending on weather, fuels and the availability of personnel.

Following loss of the American chestnut in the 1920s, oaks dominated most central hardwood forests, providing acorns for wildlife and high-quality timber. In the Southern Appalachians, however, as mature oaks die they may not be replaced by younger oak trees. Prescribed fire has been used to increase oak regeneration in some areas of the South, but there are few long-term studies measuring its benefits in mountain-hardwood ecosystems, and even fewer studies examine the effects of prescribed fires conducted in the growing season. This scientific study in Bent Creek Experimental Forest promises to inform and guide hardwood ecosystem restoration efforts in the Southern Appalachians.

Historically, fire was used by Native Americans and settlers to maintain an open understory, but in the 1930s, forest fires began to be viewed as destructive and were suppressed whenever possible. Fire suppression increases wildfire risk as fuels (woody debris and shrubs) accumulate.

For more information on prescribed fire, visit the U.S. Forest Service website http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/management/.

For more information about Bent Creek Experimental Forest's research on prescribed fire and upland hardwood ecosystem restoration, contact Julia Murphy at 828-667-5261 ext. 104 or juliamurphy@fs.fed.us.

John Nowak, FHP Entomologist, (Photo by Michael Robinson)

The FHP Southern Pine Beetle (SPB) Prevention Program was developed at the request of Congress after the last major southern pine beetle outbreak, which lasted from 1999 to 2003 and impacted nearly one million acres of forest land in eight states, causing an estimated $1.5 billion in damages. The prevention strategy has been developed and implemented in close cooperation with 12 National Forests and 13 Southern states.

Proactive prevention treatments such as thinning are known to effectively reduce the hazard of southern pine beetle infestations and are best implemented between outbreaks. Treatments associated with the SPB Prevention Program have multiple benefits, including decreasing the impacts of fire, enhancing wildlife habitat, and increasing recreational opportunities.

Kier Klepzig, SRS Assistant Director, (Photo by Michael Robinson)

Since its inception, forest managers have treated a million acres of pine forests, which represents more than 13,000 landowners who have participated in cost-share programs and hundreds of loggers who have taken part in a logger incentive program. The SPB Prevention Program serves as an example for future proactive forest health strategies that landowners, forest managers, and cooperators apply across large geographic areas. Forest Health Protection is a program of USDA Forest Service State & Private Forestry.

For more information about the program: http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/spb/

These topics and more will be the focus of the Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere (SAMAB) conference held November 15 - 17 at the Renaissance Hotel in Asheville, North Carolina. The 21st annual meeting of SAMAB, a public/private partnership focused on the stewardship of the unique resources of the Southern Appalachians, will celebrate the forest-based livelihoods in timber and specialty woods, foods and medicines and recreation provided by the region's forests.

The conference will open at 1:00 November 15 with comments by Judy Francis, SAMAB president and Western Field Officer for the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources Office of Conservation and Community Affairs, followed by keynote singer and storyteller Joe Penland. Deemed a "Cultural Treasure" by the Asheville Citizen-Times, and the recipient of the coveted Bascom Lunsford Award (named for the founder of the longest running folk festival in America), Penland is the proud steward of twelve generations and over 350 years of the rich oral tradition of the Southern Appalachian region.

The conference continues into the afternoon with a panel on sustainable wild harvesting from Southern Appalachian forests. Over the following two days, sessions featuring researchers and local experts will explore topics that include:

• Growing and marketing special forests products;
• The sustainability of recreation on both federal and private lands;
• Water quality and the wise use of the region's rivers;
• Land use issues and the interface between private and federal ownerships;
• The legacy and present use of fire for forest management;
• The effects of nonnative invasive plants on native plants; and
• Wildlife issues such as the impacts of deer and wild boar populations.

On the afternoon of November 16, a showcase of special forest products, free and open to the public, will feature demonstrations and sales of products from Southern Appalachian forests such as honey, mushrooms, musical instruments, kudzu products, American chestnut seedlings and much more.

At 3:30 on November 16, there will be a public performance by Laura Boosinger and Bryan McDowell. Boosinger is an accomplished singer and musician who has extensively studied the traditional music culture of the Southern Appalachians and Western North Carolina in particular. Bryan McDowell has won over 20 awards for his mandolin, guitar and fiddle playing and received additional acclaim as a singer/songwriter. After the performance, items from the booths will be auctioned off--including a hybrid American chestnut seedling--with proceeds going to SAMAB to support future initiatives.

For more about the conference: http://www.samab.org/site/
More on individual sessions: http://www.samab.org/site/conference-schedules/2011-fall-conference/ (Click on Conference Agenda to download PDF).