Articles

SRS scientists, in collaboration with regional fire management experts, developed tools that estimate wildfire risk across the Southeast by fire frequency and severity and the socioeconomic vulnerability of nearby communities.

Decision makers can anticipate dramatic increases in wildfire suppression spending in the rest of the 21st century. Projected changes are mainly due to the effects of a changing climate, requiring increased spending to protect communities and natural resources from higher overall rates of wildfires.

While harvesting wood from forests can reduce the carbon they store, these demands also encourage more forest planting. Faster-growing planted forests are able to close the carbon gap.

Biochar can be used as a soil amendment, for carbon sequestration, and for removal of heavy metals from wastewater or contaminated soils. SRS is generating biochar from southern hardwoods and evaluating its chemical and physical properties in an effort to create sustainable new markets for small-diameter wood.

Future Forests: Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change explores how different forest ecosystems around the world are affected by climate change and how these forests, in turn, influence climate patterns.

A team of SRS researchers partnered with North Carolina State University to investigate what factors were most associated with tree mortality after a "hot drought."

SRS researchers conducted a socio-ecological study examining resident responses to affordable housing built near urban forest patches.

SRS scientists used the Forest Dynamics Model to project the area of mature and old growth forests on federal lands and to assess climate threats to these forests under varying climate futures.

Contrary to previous assumptions, woody encroachment patterns can largely be predicted by a null model based only on steady tree population growth, suggesting that modern increases in woodland density may be a result of long-term population expansion and recovery rather than anthropogenic land-use changes.

An interdisciplinary team has begun a multiyear treatment and monitoring study to support pinyon-juniper core woodland vulnerable to intensifying wildfire.

More than 250 members of the western North Carolina community, including many forest landowners, gathered at Highland Brewery in Asheville in December 2024 to discuss the challenges facing local forests after Hurricane Helene.

By 1950, the American chestnut, once the "King of the Appalachian Forest," was extirpated. Organizations like the American Chestnut Foundation are working to restore the species by introducing blight resistance from Chinese chestnut through advanced backcross breeding techniques. Backcross breeding can only succeed when the chromosomes of both species are compatible. Because Chinese-American ch...

Culverts are part of the transportation infrastructure, but many are vulnerable to floods.A new study uses long-term, high-resolution streamflow data from 1387 watersheds on the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire and five experimental forests to evaluate how culvert design, size, and surrounding topography affect their vulnerability to flooding.This study is part of a larger body o...

Brown spot needle blight, caused by a fungal pathogen called Lecanosticta acicola, has been present in the U.S. for more than 100 years. Two major outbreaks occurred recently, including an outbreak affecting more than a million acres of loblolly pine in the Southeast and an outbreak in eastern white pine in the Northeast. The pathogen also infects other species and is present across the globe.A...

In 2024, our researchers published hundreds of papers aiming to understand southern forest ecosystems and address these threats. We’ve rounded up some important projects of the year to showcase this science and the benefits for southern forest ecosystems, mangers, and landowners.

The temperature of soil at the ground surface has big impacts on tree seedlings and future forest cover.

Microbial communities found in depressional vs. upslope soils impact nitrous oxide emissions in agricultural fields due to differences in nitrogen cycling.

Whitebark pine trees grew faster and had better resin duct characteristics in forests where competing tree species had been thinned.

Scientists developed a promising tool to determine the presence of 10 key fish species.

The 1964 Wilderness Act famously defines wilderness as an area “untrammeled by man.” But what does it mean to “trammel” the wilderness?