All Articles Page 93

Are Black Cohosh Harvests Sustainable?

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
In Southern Appalachians forests, harvests of non-timber forest products—plants used for culinary, floral, medicinal and other purposes—just keep increasing. Though overharvesting seems to be a major cause for population declines in plants such as American ginseng, black cohosh, and other medicinal plants, forest managers have lacked methods that would allow them to measure the extent…  More 

Forest Service Co-Sponsors Minority Landowner Magazine Conference

by Perdita B. Spriggs, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center  • 
The annual Minority Landowner Magazine conference is a favorite among small and limited resource landowners. This year’s seventh anniversary conference in Greensboro, North Carolina, themed “Keeping Your Farm Productive, Profitable and Yours,” engaged more than 250 participants, including federal, state, university, and private agencies and organizations sharing information to help maintain family farms. What keeps…  More 

Futures Report Charts Changes for Southern Forests

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
  High elevation forest in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Photo by Zoe Hoyle. The Southern Forest Futures Project started in 2008 with a series of public meetings across the South to gather perceptions and input about the future of the regions forests. Project leaders then used expert analysis and models to forecast and interpret changes…  More 

Electronic Noses and Forests

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
What if a machine could detect insects and diseases in living trees or help prevent log theft and illegal logging by tracking individual logs from the forest to the lumberyard? What about a machine that researchers could use to identify and understand the ecological roles of microorganisms, insects and other invertebrates that live in and…  More 

Risk Analysis Journal Honors Eastern Threat Center Research

by Stephanie Worley Firley, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center  • 
Two scientific papers co-authored by U.S. Forest Service Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center researchers and featured in the journal Risk Analysis are recognized for their contributions to the field of ecological risk assessment. In a special journal issue, Risk Analysis editor Wayne Landis selected 25 key papers published in the journal since its founding…  More 

Kudzu: The Guest That Just Won’t Leave

by Maureen Stuart, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Spring is right around the corner, and in the South, “all eyes turn to kudzu as it awakes,” says James Miller, research ecologist (emeritus) for the U.S. Forest Service Insects, Diseases, and Invasive Plants unit. Introduced to United States at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, kudzu was touted as a quick-growing ornamental vine with…  More 

From the Hexacopter: A Bird’s Eye View on Fire

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
What would you find out if you could hover a hundred feet above a prescribed fire? As you might have noticed, smoke from burning trees rises quickly, especially if there’s wind. Getting measurements of smoke once it gets above the canopy is very difficult, and up to now, very expensive. Scientists from the U.S. Forest…  More 

Forest Operations Unit Hosts SALHI Workshop

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
On Tuesday, March 26, the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) Forest Operations Research unit in Auburn, Alabama, hosted attendees of the 2013 Sale Area Layout and Harvesting Institute (SALHI) for an introduction to harvesting and forest operations research. While visiting the G.W. Andrews Forestry Sciences Lab, SALHI attendees heard presentations from  Dana Mitchell, acting…  More 

Water Management : A Balancing Act

by Stephanie Worley Firley, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center  • 
It may come as little surprise that human activities and climate influence the volume of water in rivers, but U.S. Forest Service research is now revealing just how much. Scientists with the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center are examining the individual and combined effects of changing land cover, human water use, and climate through…  More 

Forest Service Associate Chief Mary Wagner Tours Key Research Projects

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
U.S Forest Service Associate Chief Mary Wagner  recently toured several Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) experimental forests and collaborative projects in North Carolina.  While in Asheville, North Carolina, Associate Chief Wagner visited the Bent Creek Experimental Forest, headquarters for the SRS Upland Hardwood Ecology and Management unit.  The tour highlighted collaborative studies with the…  More