Articles

The Oregon coast region is now better prepared for the future thanks to an innovative working group of scientists and land managers called the Oregon Coast Adaptation Partnership. This collaboration brought together multiple branches of the USDA Forest Service, along with external partners, to compile the best available science to assess the vulnerability of federal forests and surrounding lands under future conditions and develop adaptation options.

The Fire Effects Information System has moved and improved – now it is even easier to find information about individual species, ecosystems, and their relationships with fire.

Our scientists are providing the best available knowledge about stabilizing, reforesting, restoring, and preserving water quality after fire.

GeoLCES provides a geospatial framework for evaluating wildland firefighter lookouts, communications, escape routes, and safety zones.

The Wildfire Risk to Carbon dashboard allows users to visualize and analyze risk to forest and rangeland carbon from wildfire and estimate annual smoke emissions.

The Rocky Mountain Research Station has co-produced a vulnerability assessment for aquatic and riparian ecosystems in the southwestern United States.

Researchers compared two silvicultural treatments based on an irregular shelterwood with either dispersed or aggregated tree retention to transition red pine plantations in the western Great Lakes region to an overstory structure and woody plant community more representative of natural open-canopy woodlands formerly on the sites.

Managing smoke, predicting fire behavior, and preparing for fire attack are essential actions during wildfire.

What we do before fires—from mechanical thinning to community planning to prescribed burning—can alter how and where a fire moves and protect lives and communities. Agency scientists conduct research and create tools that aid managers in building fire adapted forests, grasslands, and communities.

Our researchers are finding ways wood products can replace plastic in food packaging, developing new methods to create and apply biochar, innovating ways to build mass timber structures.

Wildfire, pests, pathogens, extreme weather, drought: these and other disturbances threaten America’s timber resources. Forest Service scientists describe, detect, map, and provide management options for these risks. They also develop new technologies and methods, such as drones, to aid managers in monitoring threats and quickly responding.

New research shows that in addition to the other benefits of longleaf pine forests, they also use significantly less water than fast growing loblolly pine forests.

The strength of America’s forest sector did not happen by accident. Forest Service scientists help managers delineate acres available for timber harvest in dynamic environments, enable decision makers to prepare for present and future markets, and develop new ways to use woody material in our economy.

Koa, a tree commonly used in Hawaiian forest restoration, does not suppress exotic grasses enough to allow secondary forest succession to a more diverse forest type.

A large wildfire depleted soil carbon in a chaparral ecosystem and microorganisms continued to decompose carbon pools after the fire, preventing soil carbon for recovering for at least 4 years.

Safety is a top priority in the Forest Service; every firefighter should come home safely. Wildland firefighters are exposed to unique hazards that can result in injury or death as well as long-term health risks from smoke. Forest Service Research understands how important it is to continuously evaluate safety needs and update research and technology accordingly.

Urban forests provide critical services that directly affect human health and well-being. Trees engage in unseen, yet critical work by moderating air and water pollution in neighborhoods, reducing storm runoff, and providing shade. Urban trees contribute to urban residents’ physical, mental, and economic well-being. San Diego's 4.9 million trees are valued at $4.7 billion as structural assets.

For over a century, Forest Service Research and Development has built the foundation for what we know about forests, fire, and firefighter safety across the country.

The USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station has released the latest data on production, prices, employment, and trade in Northwest forest industries. The information, which highlights trends dating back to 1958, is available online.

Forest Service researchers have supported the agency’s multiple use mandate since the early 1900s. Our long-term research studies and sites provide the essential underpinnings for silviculture nationwide.