All Articles Page 89

What’s in Your Drinking Water?

by Jessie Lovelace, NEMAC Intern  • 
Turning on the faucet and running a glass of tap water may not spark wonder about its origin, but with one sip youre able to assess its quality. What do you taste? In the North Carolina Piedmont, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center scientists work to improve water quality and reduce the threat of water…  More 

National Ecosystem Monitoring Network Taps Eastern Threat Center Research Sites

by Stephanie Worley Firley, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center  • 
In eastern North Carolina, three towers outfitted with state-of-the-art sensors are continuously measuring the movement of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy between the atmosphere and land surface. These “flux” towers — located on U.S. Forest Service Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center research sites that include a loblolly pine plantation, a clearcut plantation, and…  More 

Shortleaf Pine: A Species Slipping Away?

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Both shortleaf and loblolly pine are native to the southeastern United States, where the two species have coexisted and occasionally hybridized for millennia. Historically, hybrids were rare. In the 1950s hybrids made up just 3 percent of the pines in shortleaf stands, but since then their numbers have skyrocketed. Today, just two or so generations…  More 

Coweeta Hosts Workshop on Access Road Construction

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
A poorly built forest road just won’t stay put. Water runoff from unpaved roads carries soil and road materials away; without proper buffers between roads and waterways, sediments can be transported into streams, degrading water quality and stream habitat. In 1934, U.S. Forest Service scientists at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory began researching how land use change…  More 

Key Findings from the U.S. Forest Service National Climate Assessment

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
U.S. Forest Service Research and Development recently published a comprehensive synthesis of the effects of climate change on U.S. Forests . Led and edited by Forest Service scientists Jim Vose (Southern Research Station), Dave Peterson (Pacific Northwest Research Station), and Toral Patel-Weynand (Forest Service Research & Development), the report includes chapters written by experts from…  More 

The Climate Change Wildcard

by Stephanie Worley Firley, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center  • 
  “As climate conditions change, tree species will have to adapt, move, or die,” says Kevin Potter, a North Carolina State University scientist working with the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center. Trees can and do move their ranges over time in response to changing environments, but the process is relatively slow. A new climate may already…  More 

Forest Service Research Stations Host Forest Soils Conference

by Jennifer Knoepp, Research Soil Scientist, SRS Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory  • 
The 12th North American Forest Soils Conference (NAFSC) hosted by USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain and Southern Research Stations (RMRS and SRS) was held in Whitefish, Montana, June 16 to 20, 2013. Jennifer Knoepp (SRS) and Deb Page-Dumroese (RMRS) co-chaired the meeting, with the theme “The Role of Forest Soils in Sustaining Ecosystem Services.”  Session…  More 

Tracking Those Other Forest Products

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Timber is certainly the best-known forest product, but since before the time of European settlement, people have harvested other plants from the forests for a wide range of purposes. The U.S. Forest Service National Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program has assessed timber product output (TPO) for more than 60 years by surveying the primary producers of industrial…  More 

Field Day Inspires Landowners in the Western Longleaf Pine Range

by Mary Anne Sayer, Longleaf Pine unit  • 
A field day and workshop held on May 23rd at the U.S. Forest Service Kisatchie National Forest Ranger District office near Natchitoches, Louisiana is among the first ventures to spark landowner interest in longleaf pine along the western edge of this species’ historic range. Longleaf pine technology transfer efforts in the West are led by…  More 

Where’s the Ginseng?

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Newly published research by the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) demonstrates that co-managing eastern hardwood forests for timber and non-timber forest products could boost local economies while helping conserve biodiversity. SRS scientist Jim Chamberlain worked with Michael McGufffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) and Virginia Tech associate professor Stephen Prisley…  More