Eigenschaften
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August 22, 2024Southern Research StationMAHI uses mussel survey data and a few other pieces of information to calculate scores describing mussel health. MAHI scores can be compared across eastern North America. Managers can use MAHI scores to objectively assess how conservation actions or management activities are affecting mussels.
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New Science-based Model Helps Forest Managers Target Fuels Treatments Where They Make the Most Sense
August 1, 2024The Stanislaus National Forest in California lies three hours from Sacramento or San Fransisco, and visitors will likely encounter winding highways and gravel roads on their journey there. But the destination is worth the trek. Highland lakes, towering pines, and peaks hewn from the same granite as El Capitan in Yosemite National Park — just to the forest’s south — await determined souls. -
June 24, 2024Southern Research StationAfter a drought and insect outbreak killed millions of pine trees, state forestry agencies relied on the Forest Service tool called HiForm to map pine death. HiForm uses cloud computing and satellite imagery, and lets users map the impact of insect outbreaks, hurricanes, and other disturbances in near real-time and across large areas.
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May 29, 2024Mike Haldeman, Pacific Northwest Research StationWhat’s growing in the forests of Palau? And what’s it like to survey those forests? Julian Dendy, the lead author of a recently published report on forest resources in the Republic of Palau, shares his experiences and some key findings.
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May 2, 2024Yasmeen Sands, Pacific Northwest Research StationFormed a decade ago, the North American Bsal Task Force, which includes USDA Forest Service researchers, is helping to keep an infectious amphibian disease at bay. What the team is learning may also help do the same for other emerging wildlife diseases.
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April 4, 2024If you manage or plan for a forest or grassland, you’ll benefit from the 2020 Resources Planning Act Assessment. This national report, the latest in a series of decadal reports, can inform how you monitor and assess landscape health, determine changing needs, and develop desired conditions and objectives.
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April 1, 2024Southern Research StationA new fact sheet explains how agencies are working together to Slow the Spread of spongy moths. The fact sheet describes the types of actions different state and federal agencies are taking, and explains how those actions vary according to the stage of spongy moth invasion.
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January 4, 2024Kendra Wendel, Pacific Northwest Research StationReforestation efforts in the Western United States are complicated by climate change, which creates uncertainty about what seed sources to use, and how seedlings can be planted to support tree survival in the short and long term. Scientists at the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest Research Stations formed a network of landowners who are evaluating future-adapted seed sources and silvicultural practices to support reforestation success.
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January 3, 2024Yasmeen Sands, Pacific Northwest Research StationResearch wildlife biologist Philip Manlick used a novel technique to trace the movement of carbon through Arctic and boreal forest food webs and found that climate warming resulted in a shift from plant-based food webs to fungal-based food webs for several high-latitude species, with potential indirect effects on nutrient cycling and ecosystem function.
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December 13, 2023Vita WrightIn early October 2023, nearly fifty research scientists and technicians collaborating with the USDA Forest Service-sponsored Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE) gathered on the Fishlake National Forest to collect measurements from a rare stand-replacing prescribed fire.
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December 13, 2023How sustainable are U.S. forests? “The National Report on Sustainable Forests assesses the conditions and trends that reflect how we — as a society — define forest sustainability." Kathleen McGinley, research social scientist and 2020 Report lead author, International Institute of Tropical Forestry
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November 30, 2023The Resources Planning Act Assessment arose in the early 1970s amid concerns about future resource scarcity — think the energy crisis and the growing environmental movement. Fifty years later, as climate change drives wildfire, drought, floods, and other disturbances, the 2020 Resources Planning Act Assessment clues us in on what to expect over the next five decades.
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November 20, 2023Joe Phillips, Northern Research StationAcross the United States, patterns of development and sprawl have changed dramatically over time. Where forests and farmland once stood, housing developments and suburban sprawl are popping up, many on the periphery of growing metropolitan areas. This area where human settlement mixes with and meets natural landscapes is referred to as the wildland-urban interface (WUI), and a group of researchers has just released their findings in a paper entitled “Rising wildfire risk to houses in the United States, especially in grasslands and shrublands” based on a study of trends over the past three decades spanning from 1990 to 2020.
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November 14, 2023Yasmeen Sands, Pacific Northwest Research StationRichard Haynes, a former PNW Research Station research forester and program manager, received the 2023 Marcus Wallenberg Prize. Awarded annually, the international prize is bestowed by the King of Sweden in recognition of scientific achievements that contribute to forestry and forest industries. Haynes was recognized for his work developing the Timber Assessment Market Model.
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November 14, 2023Amy Androff, Pacific Northwest Research StationFreshwater biodiversity is declining at a faster rate than in any other environment, and biodiversity is a buffer for ecosystem function as environments change. If freshwater ecosystems are to continue providing clean water and food, biodiversity needs protection. This diversity equals resiliency for ecosystems and people. Biodiversity is the resilience needed as climate change intensifies.
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October 31, 2023U.S. wildfires are growing larger, lasting longer, and burning more intensely. To help protect communities and restore healthy, resilient, and fire-adapted forests, the Forest Service is employing strategic and science-based methods reducing the likelihood of uncharacteristic and dangerous fire.
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October 31, 2023Joe Phillips, Northern Research StationIn April 2023, researchers at Virginia Tech made a discovery at Sandy Point State Forest in King William County, Virginia. They found two silver flies in an area where 435 adult silver flies had been released two years earlier in March 2021 by the Virginia Department of Forestry and Cornell University. Though seemingly small in significance, this event could carry profound ecological implications. The silver flies in question are known to prey on the destructive hemlock woolly adelgid.
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September 26, 2023Amy Androff, Pacific Northwest Research StationSim Larkin, a climate scientist and lead for the station’s AirFire Team wants you to breathe easier—and more knowledgably. To that end, he helped develop the interactive online AirNow Fire and Smoke Map to inform the public—now also in Spanish and ColorVision.
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September 1, 2023Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service is investing $20 million to fund 30 research studies to develop new technologies and data that will increase restoration of degraded forests, grasslands, and watersheds.
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August 30, 2023Fire behavior is complex. Fuels, humidity, temperature, wind, terrain, and climate are the principal factors that impact how fire spreads across landscapes. The Forest Service invests in fire behavior research and develops tools to help fire managers evaluate and manage risk for both wildfire and prescribed fire.