Tag: Land use change

Webinar on December 9th: Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
African American rural land ownership has declined significantly over the past 100 years, threatening critical family and community assets. The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, in collaboration with the USDA Forest Service and Natural Resource Conservation Service, seeks to address this problem through the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program. A team…  More 

The Role of Humans in U.S. Plant Invasions

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Plant breeders have produced hybrids for centuries, maybe even millennia, crossing genetically different varieties or species to accentuate desired traits. Plants continuously hybridize on their own, either within populations of their own species or across species, families, and even genera. As exotic introduced plants began aggressively spreading into areas where they weren’t wanted, plant biologists…  More 

Projected Land Use Change in the South

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
The Southern Forest Futures Project (SFFP) started in 2008 as an effort to study and understand the various forces reshaping the forests across the 13 states of the Southeast. Chartered by the U.S. Forest Service Southern Region and Southern Research Station along with the Southern Group of State Foresters, the project examines a variety of…  More 

A City’s Dynamic Mangrove Forest

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
A recent report by U.S. Forest Service researchers on the forests of the San Juan Bay Estuary watershed provides details about a highly dynamic urban forest that provides important benefits for its residents. Tom Brandeis, supervisory research forester with the Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) Forest Inventory and Analysis unit, worked with other Forest…  More 

Piedmont Forests: The Next 50 Years

by Rod Truesdell, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Recently, CompassLive highlighted the changes likely to occur in the forests of the Appalachian-Cumberland Highlands over the next 50 years. Scientists with the Southern Forest Futures Project, a multi-agency effort led by the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station, released these findings in the first of five subregional reports for the South. This first report addressed…  More 

Assessing Future Life Along the Lumber River

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
A new project brings together researchers from the U.S. Forest Service and North Carolina State University (NCSU) with students from the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) to assess how land use and climate change impacts on the Lumber River will affect members of the Lumbee Tribe, the largest Native American tribe in North…  More 

UNC and SRS Scientists Awarded NSF-USDA Grant to Address Water Scarcity in the Southeast

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
University of North Carolina (UNC) and U.S. Forest Service researchers with the Center for Integrated Forest Science (CIFS) recently received a $2.2 million grant from the National Science Foundationand the USDA to design strategies for communities in southeastern U.S. shifting from water abundance to water scarcity due to climate change effects on weather patterns. Accustomed…  More 

The Future of Invasive Insects and Diseases in Southern Forests

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
The Southern Forest Futures Project (SFFP) started in 2008 as an effort to study and understand the various forces reshaping the forests across the 13 states of the Southeast. Chartered by the U.S. Forest Service Southern Region and Southern Research Station, along with the Southern Group of State Foresters, the project examines a variety of…  More 

The Bioenergy Balancing Act

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Wood-based energy has been proposed as an alternative to fossil energy sources such as coal and natural gas, a way to reduce the carbon emissions that lead to atmospheric warming and changing climatic conditions. But debate continues about whether substituting wood for natural gas or coal actually reduces emissions, and how long it takes for…  More 

Life in the Rubbish: Crayfish Habitat in the Mississippi Yazoo River Basin

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Crayfish – also called crawfish, crawdads, or mudbugs, depending on where you live – look like tiny lobsters, and live in freshwater rivers and streams. Crayfish need instream cover to hide from predators – and from larger, cannibalistic kin. They also use cover to find food, to shelter while incubating eggs, and to keep themselves…  More