Category: Tools

Shifting Window of Growing Seasons

by Stephanie Worley Firley, Eastern Threat Center  • 
When winter comes to an end, it’s no mystery that warming temperatures and spring rains bring new life. Wildlife emerges, flowers bloom, and brilliant green leaves begin to fill the ground and the forest canopy—all part of their seasonal cycle known as phenology. Observers know those green leaves don’t appear at the same time every…  More 

State Forest Resource Data Visualized

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
The U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, the nation’s forest census, collects and analyzes data on America’s forests. FIA produces yearly reports at the state level on: Status and trends in forest area and location; Species, size, and health of trees; Total tree growth, mortality, and removals by harvest and land-use change;…  More 

New Research Natural Areas Website

by Margaret Devall, research ecologist emerita at the SRS Center for Bottomland Hardwoods  • 
Within our national forests lies a network of protected ecosystems that are designated for non-manipulative research, educational purposes, or for maintaining biological diversity. These areas are called Research Natural Areas, or RNAs, and a new website will make it easier to use them and share data from them. The website is a joint effort of…  More 

Story Maps: A New Approach to Communicating about Forests

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
The U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) unit is increasing the interactivity and reach of forest science by using FIA and other data to create story maps on topics that range from southern forest products to white-nose syndrome. Developed on Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform, story maps are stand-alone web-based…  More 

The Future of the Francis Marion’s Coastal Forests

by Emrys Treasure, Eastern Forest Threat Assessment Center; Mary Morrison, Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests; and Sealy Chipley, Chipley Consulting  • 
When Hurricane Hugo hit the coast of South Carolina in September of 1989, the Francis Marion National Forest (Francis Marion) suffered a devastating blow. Sixty percent of its pine trees sustained moderate or heavy damage, and its bottomland hardwood trees fared even worse: 43 percent were broken and 43 percent were uprooted. At that time,…  More 

ForWarn Chosen for National Climate Resilience Toolkit Launched for White House

by Sarah Workman, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center  • 
ForWarn, the satellite-based forest disturbance monitoring system developed by the U.S. Forest Service’s Eastern Forest and Western Wildland Threat Assessment Centers was selected as one of the “top 25” tools included in the  U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit  launched on November 17th for the White House by an interagency team that included members from the Forest…  More 

Taking the Long View at the Francis Marion National Forest

by Adapted from materials provided by Lori Barrow, South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative  • 
The Francis Marion National Forest (Francis Marion) is currently revising its land and resource management plan under the National Forest System 2012 Planning Rule. The new rule requires climate change be taken into account and supports an adaptive framework based on science, public values, and the all-lands context for resource management. Located adjacent to the…  More 

Planning for Future Forests with Help from the TACCIMO Tool

by Lisa Jennings, North Carolina State University, and Stephanie Worley Firley, EFETAC  • 
From the North Carolina mountains to South Carolina’s coastal plain to the tropics of Puerto Rico, climate change is on the minds of forest planners. National forest planning teams in these areas are among the first few to revise their land and resource management plans under the U.S. Forest Service’s new Planning Rule released in…  More 

ForWarn Follows Rapidly Changing Forest Conditions

by Perdita Spriggs, EFETAC  • 
U.S. Forest Service and partner scientists are keeping a watchful eye on forest health. As fall colors replace the lush greenness of spring and summer, researchers recognize telltale signs of change in healthy forests. A new publication highlights specific examples where researchers have used ForWarn, a state-of-the-art forest change recognition and tracking system, to detect…  More 

ForWarn Researchers Get EVEREST-Sized Look at Woodland Disturbances

by Stephanie Worley Firley, EFETAC, & Dawn Levy, ORNL  • 
An exploratory visualization facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has provided researchers with the Forest Service Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center and their partners a unique view of maps used for detecting and tracking unexpected forest change and disturbances. The researchers are part of a large team that developed the first near-real-time forest threat…  More