All Articles Page 4

Long-Term Research Yields Understanding and Insights

by Jennifer Moore Myers, SRS Science Communications  • 
Gaze at a painting for long enough, and you may notice details that you didn’t see right away: light, movement, and texture. This happens with research data, too. “At Coweeta, we all talk about how everything fits together,” says USDA Forest Service scientist Jennifer Knoepp. “We have been analyzing long-term watershed data for more than…  More 

The Forest’s Bounty

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
No one knows how many gallons, pounds, and tons of non-timber forest products are harvested – there are too many products, too many units of measurement, and not enough data. “If we don’t know the volume, we can’t figure out the value,” says USDA Forest Service scientist Jim Chamberlain. “Value has two pieces to it,…  More 

SRS Scientist Legacy: Continued Insect Research

by Stacy Blomquist, Kisatchie National Forest  • 
A USDA Forest Service research scientist extended his 50 year legacy by donating more than a million dollars to each of his alma maters. John Moser’s research focused on understanding the biology of town ants (Atta texana), phoretic mites, and other associates of ants and pine bark beetles. Moser received his undergraduate and graduate degrees…  More 

Foraging in the Future

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
Foraging can be as casual as searching for wild blackberries in a suburban backyard. At least a quarter of the U.S. population has foraged in this way. “Forests provide food, medicine, and other sundry items for subsistence and income,” says USDA Forest Service scientist Jim Chamberlain. Blackberries, blueberries, Christmas trees, firewood, fungi, grasses, greenery, mosses,…  More 

Water Tables and Wetlands

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
Some wetlands won’t stay wet, according to new research that blends long-term observations and climate projections. “By end of the 21st century, all five of the wetland sites we studied are predicted to become much drier,” says USDA Forest Service research hydrologist Ge Sun. The five wetlands are long-term research sites located throughout the southeastern…  More 

A Hemlock in the Town Square

by Remi Shaull-Thompson, SRS Science Communications Intern  • 
This summer, I joined USDA Forest Service scientist Andy Whittier for a day of field work as a part of my internship with SRS Public Affairs and Science Communications. We traveled to Green Mountain, NC to check up on an experiment led by research entomologist Bud Mayfield on hemlock trees. Throughout the eastern U.S., the invasive…  More 

Trees in Protected Areas

by Remi Shaull-Thompson, SRS Science Communications Intern  • 
Conservation goals range anywhere from aesthetics to survival. Among the most important of those is ensuring that an ecosystem is resilient to disturbances and provides as many different functions as possible. According to an assessment by a USDA Forest Service cooperating researcher, those qualities can be quantified using two metrics: rarity and evolutionary distinctiveness. Rarity…  More 

Women In Science: Dana Mitchell

by Teresa Jackson, SRS Public Affairs, and Remi Shaull-Thompson, SRS Science Communications Intern  • 
The Women in Science series features women scientists from across the Southern Research Station (SRS) – their education, career paths, challenges, achievements, and inspirations. Meet SRS scientist Dana Mitchell, a research engineer and project leader with the Forest Operations Research unit in Auburn, Alabama. Her team studies the science and technology involved in physical alterations of the forest.…  More 

Workshop on Southern Experimental Forest Network

by Jennifer Moore Myers, SRS Science Communications, and Stephanie Laseter, EF network coordinator  • 
More than 20 representatives from SRS Experimental Forests (EF), Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA), SRS leadership, and partner sites met on April 30 in Little Rock, Arkansas. “Their primary objective was to build on previous efforts, such as the field tours, and develop an implementation framework and plan for the network,” says Stephanie Laseter, EF…  More 

Celebrating National Pollinator Week

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
On June 19, 2018, more than 50 people gathered in Asheville, North Carolina to experience pollinators and native plants. They were celebrating National Pollinator Week. Buncombe County Extension Master Gardeners and the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station organized the event. Asheville GreenWorks, Bee City USA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and many others…  More