All Articles Page 90

NASP Mountain Module held at Bent Creek Experimental Forest

by Julia Kirschman, SRS Upland Hardwoods Research unit  • 
From June 10th  to 21st, the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) Upland Hardwood Ecology and Management Research unit hosted the two-week Regional Mountain Module for the National Advanced Silviculture Program (NASP) at the LEED-certified Forestry Research and Training Center at Bent Creek Experimental Forest near Asheville, North Carolina.  NASP, the certification program for Forest Service silviculturists,…  More 

The Center for Integrated Forest Science

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
A Pioneering Research Model Over the past 40 years, forest science has evolved from more traditional “forestry” science with a near exclusive focus on enhancing forest productivity to a science that must address broader and more complex topics such as sustaining ecosystem services in the face of land use change, climate variability, and altered disturbance…  More 

NASA Honors ForWarn Team with Group Achievement Award

by Stephanie Worley Firley  • 
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has honored the development team behind the ForWarn forest monitoring system, including researchers from the U.S. Forest Service Eastern Forest and Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Centers, with a Group Achievement Award. The award recognizes multiple federal and university partners “for creating the first near real-time forest threat…  More 

How Green is a Healthy Forest?

by Stephanie Worley Firley  • 
As new spring leaves emerged and a wave of green moved up through the United States, the 2013 growing season began—and U.S. Forest Service researchers were watching. In forests, greenness levels change with natural rhythms called phenology, including seasonal changes, growth and mortality, year-to-year climate variation, and effects of disturbance. All of these indicators are important…  More 

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