Tag: Outreach

Educating Future Engineers about Cities and Trees

by Eric Kuehler, Technology Transfer Specialist, Urban Forestry South  • 
According to the 2010 census, almost 81 percent of the U.S. population lives in urban areas. As the U.S. loses more of its forests and natural resources to the expansion of urban areas, it is important to provide information about the benefits of trees, forests, and natural areas to city planners and the engineers who…  More 

Panelists Bring “WoW” Factor to Women’s Workplace Challenges and Solutions

by Stephanie Worley Firley, EFETAC  • 
In your day-to-day life, what obstacles prevent you from achieving your goals at work? Upon reflection, each person may have a different and personal response to this question. When posed to a group of women with common work environments, some similar challenges emerge. Three professionals from The Wildlife Society’s “Women of Wildlife” (WoW) committee engaged…  More 

Creating Young Forests to Benefit Wildlife

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
There’s a tendency to think of the hardwood forests of the South as pristine, undisturbed, and unchanging. But forests are constantly changing, which is a good thing for disturbance-dependent species that require open structural conditions created immediately after forest disturbances or at some point early in the process of recovery. Historically and still today, windstorms,…  More 

Teaching Cherokee Indian Youth about Culturally Important Plants

by Julia Kirschman, Bent Creek Experimental Forest  • 
The U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) recently partnered to develop learning modules for children attending EBCI’s Snowbird Youth Center in Robbinsville, North Carolina. The youth center is part of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cherokee. The plant module is the first learning module developed, and…  More 

Coweeta Hosts Young Scientists’ Presentations

by Randy Fowler, Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory  • 
On November 20, for the second year in a row,  5th grade students from Mountain View Intermediate School in Macon County, North Carolina, visited the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory (Coweeta) in nearby Otto to tour the facilities and learn about some of the exciting research taking place at the outdoor…  More 

Life after Hemlock: Restoring Riparian Forests in the Southern Appalachians

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery  • 
In the last decade, the hemlock woolly adelgid, a tiny sap-sucking insect native to Japan, has swept through southern Appalachian forests, leaving dead hemlocks in its wake. Hemlock branches no longer shade streams or tower over shrubs, and their loss has affected streamside, or riparian, forests. “Without hemlock, more sunlight reaches the forest floor,” says U.S.…  More 

New Forest Service/NCSU Partnership Provides Research Experience to Undergraduates

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery  • 
A new partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and North Carolina State University’s College of Natural Resources brings undergraduate students from historically black colleges and universities together for a summer research and mentoring program. In summer 2015, three students participated in the program. “This internship helped me broaden my possibilities for the future,” said Rayquan, one…  More 

How the Urban Forest Strike Teams Began

by Excerpted from longer article by Paul Revell, Urban Forestry Coordinator, Virginia Department of Forestry  • 
The Urban Forest Strike Teams (UFSTs) are a means for city foresters, state foresters, commercial arborists, and others to quickly come to the aid of a region whose urban forest has been impacted by a natural disaster. Here’s the backstory.  In 2003, Hurricane Isabel cut a devastating path across Virginia, leaving lots of damaged trees…  More 

Children Discover Native Pollinators at BugFest

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Delivery  • 
On September 19, 2015, almost 32,000 kids and adults gathered at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh to celebrate BugFest. The free event featured over 100 bug-related exhibits, crafts, games, and activities, and a number of presentations. The U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station’s (SRS) booth “Buggy About Pollinators” was a big…  More 

Oct. 20 – 22, Fire History in the Appalachians Workshop

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Register now: “Fire History in the Appalachians Workshop and Central Appalachians FLN Workshop” Fire has shaped the ecosystems of the Appalachian Mountains for millennia, and an area’s fire history can guide land managers who use prescribed fire for ecosystem restoration or reducing hazardous fuels. On October 20-22, the Consortium of Appalachian Fire Managers and Scientists…  More