In the News

Keeping a Pulse on Forests and the Climate

It has been a busy year for forests and climate in the news. Record-breaking temperatures brought attention to climate-related issues, and people are asking, what role can forests play? How should forests be managed? How can the forest products industry adapt to a changing climate and also help achieve climate goals? Is there a role for carbon markets? What are the risks associated with wildfire? 

In 'Points North' podcast, researchers try to save ash trees from extinction

In 2006, Kathleen Knight was walking through a forest in northwest Ohio. She's a researched ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service. All around her were big, beautiful ash trees, tall trunks with lush green canopies. These trees were thriving. Just three years later, when Kathleen revisited the same forest, she was met with a completely different scene, hundreds of dead ash trees as far as the eye could see.

Climate change could affect fall colors. 35 years of data from NH might provide insights on how.

Under a canopy of fiery orange and red, Amey Bailey is taking a hike she knows well. It’s the second week of October, and maples and beech trees are showing off their colors. Every few steps, a piece of scientific equipment peeks out of the woods.

Podcast: The Last to Leave

A researcher in Ohio was surrounded by hundreds of dead ash trees. They had been wiped out by this beetle called the emerald ash borer. But then, in that same forest, she found a lone tree thriving. Could this tree be the key to saving ash from extinction?

The Last to Leave

Kathleen Knight was doing some research in a forest in Ohio. It was 2006, and she was surrounded by hundreds of healthy ash trees. But when she returned three years later, it was a completely different scene.

“And that was kind of our moment of shock saying, ‘Wow, they're all dead,’” Kathleen remembered.

A destructive, invasive beetle, emerald ash borer, was wiping out ash trees. First across the Great Lakes region and, eventually, all over North America, where there are billions of ash. Ash trees filter groundwater, provide habitat for all sorts of plants, animals, and insects. Indigenous people depend on ash to make baskets, and it’s used for other things like baseball bats and tool handles.

People from around the world come to Rhinelander to learn how to best use plants to clean up waste

Mpambira Kambewa is watching Malawi grow rapidly.

“There is massive urbanization, whereby the cities that are there, you know, are expanding in both size and then also in terms of the social economic activities that happen within the cities,” said Kambewa. “Also, much of the rural areas are also undergoing their own sort of urbanization.”

According to UN Habitat, the east African country is “one of the fastest urbanizing countries in the world with an annual urban growth rate higher than five percent.”

The Dirt on Soil Science

US Forest Service Soil Scientists Randy Kolka, Jeff Kroll and Dave Morley stop by to talk about their research into how increasing wildfires, and their severity, effect critical peatland ecosystems on the National Forest.

The Future of Forestry AI Innovation, and Sustainable Practices with David Bengston

In this episode of Timber Talks, host Mindy sits down with David Bengston, an environmental futurist with the USDA Forest Service. The discussion delves into the fascinating world of futures research and its critical relevance to forestry and the forest-based sector. Bengston shares his unique journey into the field of futuring, explaining the role of a futurist and how exploring a range of possible, plausible, and preferable futures can significantly benefit long-term decision-making in forestry. The conversation touches on emerging technologies, innovative forestry practices, and the profound impact of strategic foresight on the future of natural resource management.

Trees enlisted to take on legacy mining pollution at KBIC’s Sand Point

It’s planting day at Keweenaw Bay Indian Community’s Sand Point where a team of students, researchers, and natural resources professionals are installing specialized trees to help remove mining pollutants from plots within the 34-acre site.

“We’re looking to the trees to actually clean the soil, clean the stamp sands of heavy metals, which are copper, cadmium and arsenic,” said Ron Zalesny, a research plant geneticist with US Forest Service. “These trees will take up these heavy metals and remove them from the soil.”

The process is called phytoremediation. It’s an environmental restoration application used successfully in urban brownfields, decommissioned landfills, and similar sites, Zalesny said.

S.5 Ep.8: Deer, Oh Deer!

If you are a forest practitioner in the eastern forests of North America (and maybe elsewhere) at one time or another you have likely been frustrated by white-tailed deer. Browse impacts on forest vegetation are significant and long-lasting, but those impacts are not the same everywhere making deer browse a challenging issue to both understand and address. Join us on this episode of SilviCast as we seek to better understand how deer impact our forests and what clues the latest science holds for mitigating browse impacts through silviculture. We spoke with two leading researchers on deer-forest interactions, Alex Royo, Research Ecologist with the US Forest Service’s Northern Research Station, and Amanda McGraw, Research Scientist with the Wisconsin DNR. 

Forests are still fighting climate change, against all odds

Yude Pan, senior research scientist at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service Northern Research Station and co-lead author of the study, provides interesting insights.

“Our research team analyzed data from millions of forest plots around the globe. What sets this study apart is its foundation in extensive ground measurements – essentially, a tree-by-tree assessment of size, species, and biomass,” noted Pan.

“While the study also incorporates remote sensing data, a common tool in national forest inventories and land surveys, our unique strength lies in the detailed on-the-ground data collection.”

Amazingly, forests are still sucking up as much carbon as they were 30 years ago. But there’s a catch. - Besieged by logging, fires, and pests, this global balancing act might not last long.

A study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday found that, despite plenty of turmoil, the world’s forests have continued to absorb a steady amount of carbon for the last three decades. 

“It appears to be stable, but it actually maybe masks the issue,” said Yude Pan, a senior research scientist at the U.S. Forest Service and the lead author of the study, which included 16 coauthors from around the world.

As the Earth’s forests have undergone dramatic changes, with some releasing more carbon than they absorb, Pan warns that better forest management is needed. “I really hope that this study will let people realize how much carbon is lost from deforestation,” Pan said. “We must protect this carbon sink.”

Pest predictor i-Tree will help identify harmful nonnative insects - With invader insect numbers rising in Maine, the tool can help protect the native trees.

"The northeast of the United States is on of the most invaded regions in the country when it comes to forest pests," Nathan Havill, a researcher with the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service's Northern Station said. "We see a steady increase in the number of nonnative insects that keep getting introduced.  There are enormous numbers of goods coming into the country from other places.  They can't all be inspected for pests before they come in."

Researchers are working towards more accurate wildfire smoke forecasting to help improve health and air quality

There are a multitude of factors that go into forecasting where wildfire smoke will go and how it will impact a region.

Figuring all that out is part of Jay Charney’s job. He’s a research meteorologist for the USDA Forest Service Northern Research station based in Lansing, Michigan.

“You need a fire. You need to have fuels. The fuels are consumed, and then they loft smoke and other constituents of the consumption burning process into the atmosphere. Once those materials are lofted into the atmosphere, that's when meteorological conditions and a meteorologist forecaster takes over with trying to understand where the smoke is going to go next,” said Charney.

A large focus of Charney’s research is how can we get more accurate smoke forecasting.

Fires Char the Siberian Arctic

Most fires in this region are ignited by dry lightning. “Fires are a natural part of boreal and high Arctic landscapes in Yakutia and the broader Siberian Arctic,” said Kevin Smith, a U.S. Forest Service plant physiologist and co-author of a 2022 analysis of wildland fire activity in the Siberian Arctic. “However, the frequency, severity, and area encompassed by current wildfire conditions are truly striking.”

Pest predictor identifies ingredients for ecological recipe for destruction

Nathan Havill, a research entomologist with the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station was one of many of the pest predictor’s key developers. Havill works in the agency’s invasive species unit, concentrating on pests that impact trees and forest ecosystems. He focuses mainly on genetics and evolutionary biology, examining new pests to find out more about where they came from and their natural enemies that may have the potential to stem their spread.

At present, Havill is gathering information about approximately 70 species of non-native insects. His intent is to input this information into the model, which can help determine if any have the potential to become high-impact pests.

I move forests hundreds of miles north to protect them from climate change - Just two decades ago the trees Brian Palik has been planting in Northern Minnesota would have been unable to survive.

When forester Brian Palik looks from his window he sees a rich panoply of many species of trees: red pine, balsam fir, paper birch and white spruce.

Yet he hopes within 20 years the vista will have changed. With luck, by then, those species will have been joined by others, such as bur oak, red maple and black cherry. Just two decades ago, those varieties would have struggled to survive in the part of Northern Minnesota where Palik lives.

Cicadas are Back! What You Need to Know

U.S. Forest Service research entomologist Andrew Liebhold, who studies insects, said periodical cicadas are a group of seven species native only to eastern North America.

“Compared to other insects, their body size is very large and the other unique thing about them is they have a very long lifespan,” he said in an interview. “Most of the time, nobody notices them because they spend the vast majority of their life underground feeding on the roots of trees.”

“The unique thing about periodical cicadas is that their development is synchronized. In any one area, they all emerge in a single year. People have speculated why that is,” Liebhold said, “and the speculation is that by doing so, they’ll be able to satiate the hunger of the many things that like to feed on cicadas.”

Oak & Fire

Are forest fires a good thing? When most people think of forest fires, they might imagine the destructive wildfires out west. But for our forests in the Eastern United States, hardwood forests are going through dramatic changes in species composition due to a lack of fire in the landscape. In particular, fire suppression policies have contributed to a precipitous decline of young oak forests. On this week's episode of The Hardy Woods Podcast, we talk to Dr. Daniel Dey of the US Forest Service to talk about what can be done to save these amazing trees and why simply bringing back fire isn't enough.

Blossoms Over Blades: Embrace "Slow Mow Summer" for a Buzz-Worthy Lawn - If you’re a fan of No Mow May, you’re going to love Slow Mow Summer

Slow Mow Summer is not just a catchy slogan; it’s also grounded in compelling research. In Springfield, Massachusetts, the third-largest city in the state, researchers explored how different mowing frequencies impacted the number of flowers and bees in lawns. They subjected homes to three different mowing schedules: weekly, bi-weekly, and every three weeks. They then counted the number of blooming flowers and bees in their lawns throughout the summer.

The research revealed a surprisingly rich diversity of flowers and bees in lawns. “When you look out at [lawns], you think there’s really nothing there and that they’re not really providing any habitat,” says Susannah Lerman, a research ecologist at the US Forest Service who led the study. However, looks can be deceiving. Lerman and colleagues identified 63 species of plants growing spontaneously in yards and 111 species of bees, which represented almost a quarter of all bee species recorded in Massachusetts. “The amount of diversity was astonishing,” says Lerman.

Chicagoans wait until Mother’s Day to mow, hoping to help imperiled bees

"One of the things I like about it is it's catchy, and people are finally starting to acknowledge that they can do something different with their lawns and it can have benefits for bees," said Susannah Lerman, a research ecologist at the U.S. Forest Service and co-author of a frequently referenced 2018 study that found mowing less benefits bees.  "From that perspective, I think (No Mow May) is really great," she said. "People are talking about it. You're seeing (lawn) signs everywhere."

Still, she said, May is just one month. "If we can get people to reduce their lawn mowing in May -- and June, July and August -- then we're talking. That's going to have a lot more benefits for bees," she said.

Her 2018 study found that mowing less frequently leads to more flowers and more bees. Lawns mowed every two weeks had the most bees (compared to lawns mowed every week or every three weeks). Among the possible explanations for the superior bee counts in lawns mowed every two weeks: the taller grasses in lawns mowed every three weeks may have impeded the bees' access to flowers, the study said.

A Buffer Zone for Trees - How frosty pockets in valleys could help protect some trees against climate change.

In most mountainous regions, cold-loving trees like spruce and fir grow at higher elevations while warm-adapted ones like maple and beech grow at lower elevations. But a team of researchers from the University of Vermont, who studied temperature and forest composition in three New England forests, found these patterns of growth can be inverted when the cold islands of air blanket lower elevations.

“These areas prone to cold-air pooling, for now, are harboring plant communities that are vulnerable to climate change in areas where we wouldn’t expect to find them,” says Melissa Pastore, an ecosystem ecologist at the U.S. Forest Service who led the study when she was a post-doc at the University of Vermont.

How pockets of cold air in New England may help plants survive a changing climate

Most of Vermont’s forests are made up of what are known as northern hardwood trees, like maple and beech. As you climb to higher elevations, the temperature generally drops. Eventually, it becomes too cold for the northern hardwoods to thrive, and conifers like fir and spruce take over.

But there are areas where this pattern is inverted — valleys and basins where cold air pools and which are populated by plants living far below their usual elevation.

This inversion of vegetation comes through a process called cold air pooling, explained Melissa Pastore, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service who led a recently-published study on the phenomenon. Throughout the day, the surface of the Earth is heated by solar radiation from the Sun, which it then emits back as longwave radiation. At nighttime, the ground no longer receives solar radiation, but continues to emit longwave radiation. This causes the ground to cool, in turn cooling the air in contact with it.

Throwing Shade - Pittsburgh’s street trees are free upon request. So why do they often go to the city’s wealthiest residents?

Michelle Kondo, a research social scientist with the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, says being around trees increases mood and lowers stress levels and blood pressure.  In her research, Kondo found that being around green spaces significantly reduces feelings of depression and "worthlessness".

In a recent study where Kondo measured gun violence rates in Philadelphia before and after a team planted greenery and cleaned up the area, she says she found a decrease in shootings.

Green Space For All

This episode students explore how environmental racism impacts communities of color. Students explore how important the growth of green spaces can be to decrease the health risks associated to the lack of trees.   Guest: Morgan Grove

It withstood hurricanes, lightning strikes and pests: 'This tree is a survivor'

John Butnor, a research plant physiologist for the U.S. Forest Service, said although a tree's genetics may play a role, it's the genetic diversity of the nearby trees “that gave rise to that individual.”

“Trees grow together in [forests] and affect each other,” Butnor said. And because genetic diversity is so vital to a forest’s health, cloning has not been part of the federal government’s calculus in developing resilient forests. Butnor added that if clones make up a vast portion of a forest’s tree population, it could potentially “reduce genetic diversity.”

Climate change, other pollutants boost mercury’s Great Lakes health threat

Mercury levels in the Great Lakes are increasing as temperatures warm and extreme weather becomes more frequent, according to research in Minnesota’s Marcell Experimental Forest.

Mercury is a global pollutant released into the atmosphere through fossil fuel burning. It is then deposited onto land and water. Once it seeps into waterways, bacteria convert it into methylmercury – a form that is ingested by and accumulated in fish.

“Fish that accumulate these methylmercury levels become toxic,” said Robert Haight, emeritus research forester for the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Research Station. “There’s been quite a bit of research to determine appropriate levels of fish consumption. If those thresholds are exceeded, they cause potential injuries, especially in young people, pregnant women and nursing moms.”

(Keith) Nislow and Haight are part of a U.S. Forest Service program that studies the effects of sulfur and mercury pollution on the Great Lakes watershed. Research began in 2021. The goal of the five-year project is to inform environmental policy, like fish consumption advisories.

Moving Forests Are Fleeing Climate Change With The Help Of The DREAM Team

The Desired REgeneration through Assisted Migration (DREAM) project aims to safeguard forests by speeding up the process of their distribution responding to the environment through assisted migration. Temperature is just one of several factors that can influence a forest to get a wiggle on, with other drivers including pest outbreaks and windstorms. Now, science can help them do it a bit faster.

“The main threat posed by climate change is that tree species and populations within species have adapted, over centuries, to the climatic conditions present where they exist – their niche,” the DREAM team told IFLScience. 

Bee-friendly Lawns: Mowing Less is a Big Win for Bees

Lawns are often dismissed as inhospitable environments for bees, but today we’re challenging this notion. Beyond the grass, lawns harbor various species of flowers such as dandelions, clovers, violets, and more. These small flowers are treasure troves of nectar and pollen, essential resources for bees.

Dr. Susannah Lerman studied the impact of mowing frequency on bee populations. We discuss her findings, which highlight the tremendous potential of residential yards in creating habitat for bees and promoting biodiversity.

She recommends embracing a low mow approach throughout the entire growing season to provide a more consistent habitat for bees. Adjusting mowing frequency to every two weeks aligns with bee abundance and adheres to various city ordinances.

PUTTING THE B IN BDQ

It’s not worth saying anything unless it’s worth taking a long time to say, to paraphrase Treebeard in The Lord of the Rings. And sometimes you need to play the long game if you’re a research forester too. Long-term silvicultural studies are surprisingly rare, but extremely valuable. That is why a recent paper on six decades of selection cutting results got our attention. The Cutting Methods Study is a long-term investigation of cutting systems in second-growth northern hardwood stands on the Argonne Experimental Forest in northern Wisconsin. Join us on this episode of SilviCast as we explore the somewhat surprising results with Christel Kern, Research Forester with the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Research Station.

WTIP hosts outdoor community conversation about spruce budworm

The prevalence of spruce budworm across northeastern Minnesota, particularly in the Superior National Forest, is increasing.

Efforts are ongoing in northeastern Minnesota to monitor, manage, and mitigate the impact of the spruce budworm, a native insect that feeds on the needles of spruce and balsam fir.

WTIP’s Kalli Hawkins hosted a special outdoor news program on March 21 to learn about the life history of spruce budworm and the ongoing forest management practices and research in northeastern Minnesota. Joining Hawkins is Brian Sturtevant, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service, who will provide an in-depth look at spruce budworm.

Sturtevant has over two decades of experience studying spruce budworm. He dedicates his research to exploring the interactions between human land use and management and natural disturbance processes within the Superior National Forest and the Midwest.

In northern Minnesota, researchers and foresters prepare for emerald ash borer invasion

Earlier this month, U.S. Forest Service biologist Rob Venette pointed out black ash trees with their bark split open. Their bark was pockmarked with woodpecker holes — the birds eat emerald ash borer larvae. He used a curved draw knife to carefully peel back the bark of an infected tree, revealing smooth tunnels, about the width of a pencil, carved in S-shaped patterns known as “galleries.”

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“And so all of this work is really meant to help us forecast how far north would we expect emerald ash borer to move,” said Venette. “And once it gets there, how much damage might it cause? And how quickly might those effects be realized?”

Those are important questions, because this spot sits on the edge of a vast expanse of an estimated one billion black ash trees that stretches across north central Minnesota.

“What I tell people is EAB has never seen anything like this yet,” said Brian Palik, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station in Grand Rapids who has studied the insect for the past two decades.

“It’s going to be overwhelmed by the smorgasbord of ash that it sees.”

Seeds of change: Assisted migration and the future of forests

Throughout history, the Earth has experienced many changes in climate. Each left marks upon the planet’s landscapes and biodiversity. For instance, as the last Ice Age came to its close, the retreating glaciers made way for tree species to migrate into previously inhospitable environments in North America and Europe. But today, the abrupt speed of human-caused climate change poses new challenges to forest ecosystems worldwide—threatening their health and long-term resilience. With temperatures rising and precipitation patterns shifting, tree populations face difficulty adapting to these rapidly evolving conditions, while better adapted tree varieties lack the natural migration rate to shift their distribution amidst the rapid climate change.

In essence, the clock is ticking and trees are struggling to keep pace. To tackle this challenge, natural resource managers are turning to forward-thinking strategies to aid in the long-term health of forests in the face of climate change. One such strategy is assisted migration, and at the forefront of this approach is the Desired Regeneration through Assisted Migration, or DREAM, project.

Emerald Ash Borer is here to stay. These researchers are working to control the population and protect ecosystems.

Emerald Ash Borer is a shiny green beetle first found in southeast Michigan in 2002. Since then, the invasive species has killed hundreds of millions of ash trees across North America.

Toby Petrice is a research entomologist with the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station based in Lansing, Michigan.

He’s worked on a lot of invasive species over his 30-year career with the Forest Service, but much of his time right now is devoted to Emerald Ash Borer [EAB]. Specifically, he’s working on using classical biological control to try and slow its spread.

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Dr. Dustin Bronson is a research plant physiologist with the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station in Rhinelander.

EAB has been making its way north in Wisconsin over the last two decades. Bronson says it’s a matter of time before ash trees start dying.

“Usually, it's between about six to eight years between when the EAB arrives and the stand is completely dead,” said Bronson. “It's a very short timeline, when you think about all the needed management activities that it takes to get some new cohorts of trees established.”

Springfield officials to welcome Harvard Urban Forestry Program

Several Springfield officials welcomed a group from the Harvard Urban Forestry Program at Forest Park on Wednesday.

According to the City of Springfield, Mayor Domenic Sarno, Patrick Sullivan, the Executive Director of Parks, Buildings and Recreational Management (PBRM), and City Forestry, Alex Sherman, welcomed the group from Harvard in partnership with the USDA Forest Service, ReGreen Springfield, and the city. The team from Harvard will be conducting a three-year research study plan to help enhance the city’s urban forestry, open spaces, heat island effect, and air quality, and other items.  

Springfield opened the $4.6 million Edward P. Casey Springfield Forestry Operations Center last year as part of the Sarno Administration’s efforts to enhance Springfield’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan. The Center helps to support the progressive management and operations of the Parks Department Forestry Division and highlights Mayor Sarno’s commitment to restore and enhance municipal forestry operations, which was suspended by the state-imposed Financial Control Board.

Moving trees north to save the forests

On a brisk September morning, Brian Palik’s footfalls land quietly on a path in flickering light, beneath a red pine canopy in Minnesota’s iconic Northwoods. A mature red pine, also called Norway pine, is a tall, straight overstory tree that thrives in cold winters and cool summers. It’s the official Minnesota state tree and a valued target of its timber industry.

But red pine’s days of dominance here could fade. In coming decades, climate change will make red pine and other Northwoods trees increasingly vulnerable to destructive combinations of longer, warmer summers and less extremely cold winters, as well as droughts, windstorms, wildfires and insect infestations. Climate change is altering ecological conditions in cold regions faster than trees can adapt or migrate.

Palik, a forest ecologist with the US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service Northern Research Station, stops and points to a newcomer under the red-pine canopy: a broadleaf deciduous tree, bitternut hickory, as high as an elephant’s eye at about 10 feet tall and eight years old. “It’s doing really well,” he says.

Stillmeadow Peace Park is Baltimore’s Latest Tale of Urban Reinvention

Among the connections that Martin made in the aftermath of the flood was Morgan Grove, a research forester at the Baltimore Urban Field Office of the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station in Catonsville, where he has worked since 1996. The federal agency would soon commit $90,000 over three years, plus staff time and planting materials, while also coordinating with the church on a plan for silviculture—the cultivation and management of trees—to respond to the uncovered ash tree blight. 

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When most people think of the U.S. Forest Service, it’s about fighting wildfires or managing vast expanses of woods out West. The agency has 193 million acres under its purview, including 154 national forests, 20 grasslands, and myriad other public lands. 

But small patches like Stillmeadow are vital areas of study for the federal agency’s nine urban field stations. Baltimore’s Urban Field Office is the oldest city research station among them, and Baltimore is actually “one of the birthplaces of urban ecology,” explains Nancy Sonti, an urban ecologist who works alongside Grove studying the social and ecological benefits of trees in cities. Since 1997, Baltimore has been the subject of the Forest Service’s multi-decade Baltimore Ecosystem Study, which examines the city and its metropolitan area as a social-ecological system. 
 

Ash: A​ Lingering Hope

Sometimes foresters in eastern North America may feel as if they are in a Lemony Snicket novel, with chestnut blight, spongy moth, Dutch elm disease, and emerald ash borer creating a continuing series of unfortunate events.  Emerald ash borer or EAB is one of the most recent invasive pests with the potential to eliminate an entire tree species. And foresters have many questions on how to manage EAB impacted stands and what they can do to help maintain ash trees as a component of our forests. On this episode of SilviCast we talk with two of North America's leading researchers working on EAB genetics and ecology, Kathleen Knight and Jennifer Koch of the USFS Northern Research Station in Delaware, Ohio.

Preserving Minnesota’s bogs could fight climate change

The U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Research Station in Minnesota has a $1 million federal grant to start the mapping and restoration project called PeatRestore.

The map, expected to be finished by summer, will use satellite data to plot peatland-classified wetlands nationwide for the first time.

“We wanted to help people prioritize on-the-ground actions for peatland restoration,” said Erik Lileskov, a U.S. Forest Service research ecologist and project lead. “A lot of degraded peatlands are in private ownership and people might want to figure out if their lands are considered to be priority restoration sites based on the map.”

In the early 1900s, drainage ditches were built across thousands of acres of Minnesota peatlands to drain the land for farming.

“They took those dirty, ugly peatlands that are just mosquito havens and drained them to convert them into something that’s useful from a growing perspective,” said Randy Kolka, a U.S. Forest Service research soil scientist.

...“If we wouldn’t have drained 90 percent of our peatlands 100 years ago, we would have a very different globe right now,” Kolka said.

Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study: Lindsay Rustad on Connecting Science and Community

In a recent episode of the 603Podcast, Lindsay Rustad, Scientist and Forest Service Team Lead at Hubbard Brook, sat down with Dan Egan to discuss a crucial topic: effectively sharing scientific research on environmental conservation. Lindsay's insights covered everything from the role of art and poetry in connecting people to environmental issues to the profound impact of acid rain and Hubbard Brook’s long-term ecosystem monitoring.

Mitigating Urban Climate Change

To begin to answer the multi-layered questions, improving urban ecology presents requires the use of a lot of data on which the scientists and community partners can act. That data ecosystem is just now beginning to coalesce, not just from the measurement side, but from a basic inventory of what already exists. The Forest Service's (David) Nowak said that municipalities have long kept inventory of their physical assets, and that sort of attitude is only now beginning to emerge in urban ecology, as evidenced by Boston's comprehensive citywide tree inventory made available in its plan.

"There were a lot of papers in the 1980s and 1990s talking about benefits of trees, but they never measured anything," Nowak said. "We knew how many light poles we had and how many cars were registered, so getting that physical data leads to understanding both the number of trees and leaf area and cover they have."

Everyone says trees are good for us. This scientist wants to prove it.

N.H.’s primary pushed the GOP to fix acid rain. Climate change is another story. Climate activists say failure to focus on global warming is a missed opportunity.

The result of both the success and the failure of that (Clean Air Act) legislation is evident today at the Hubbard Brook research facility, a 7,800-acre site supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, where scientists conduct one of the country’s most extensive studies of air, water, soil and other parts of the ecosystem.

Hubbard Brook researchers have measured the 84 percent decline in acidity, according to Likens — a remarkable decrease from the peak around the early 1970s. But they have simultaneously documented that last summer, the site experienced the warmest temperature since measurements began in 1956, according to Lindsey Rustad, acting director of the Agriculture Department’s Northeast Climate Hub. The mean annual temperature increased by 3.6F (2C), which compares to an average global surface temperature increase of 2F (1.1C) over the same period, Rustad said.

For New Hampshire, Rustad said, the increased warming has meant longer growing seasons, warmer winters, less snow, shorter periods of lake ice and more heat waves.

“Climate change is unquestionably the biggest environmental crisis we’re facing right now,” Rustad said. “2023 was a warning.”

National Climate Assessment shows extreme precipitation has increased most in the Northeast

Extreme precipitation events have increased by about 60% in the Northeast since the 1950s. Intense rain and snow is increasing in most of the U.S., but much more in the Northeast than in other regions.

The assessment says the United States is now experiencing a billion-dollar weather or climate disaster every three weeks, on average. (In the 1980s, the country experienced one of those every four months). Severe storms, flooding, and winter storms make up many of those disasters.

Erin Lane, a scientist with the USDA’s Northeast Climate Hub, was an author of the National Climate Assessment. She says the number of days with more than two inches of rain has increased about 40%.

Using trees to remediate and stabilize mining waste

Sitting at his desk at the U.S Forest Service’s Northern Research Station in Rhinelander, Ron Zalesny points to a satellite map of the Keweenaw Peninsula.

He’s focused in on Sand Point, an area of land along Lake Superior on the peninsula’s southeastern edge.

“This is where that Mass Mill was located and where they dumped everything. Then over time, it has gone into the lake and currents have pushed it here. This is Sand Point this point right here,” said Zalesny.

Grass is out. Native lawns are in.

Grass is out. Native lawns are in. As the realities of climate change become starker, more and more people are looking for ways to create environmentally friendly spaces. NPR speaks with Susannah Lerman about yard management.

Emerging tree diseases are on the rise, threatening the planet's largest plants

"In North America, we've effectively lost chestnut as a major overstory tree over the last century, due to chestnut blight. With new diseases continually emerging, other trees could face similar consequences over the coming decades," said Andrew Gougherty, a research landscape ecologist at the U.S. Forest Service.

Gougherty's latest study, published in the open-access journal NeoBiota, quantifies just how bad things are getting for the planet's largest plants. He looked at more than 900 new disease reports impacting several hundred tree species in dozens of countries and found the number of emerging tree diseases has shot up in recent decades.

"One of the surprising findings from this work was the rapid pace of accumulation, with the number of new emerging diseases doubling every approximately 11 years," Gougherty told CBC.

Mapping tools could help forest managers get ahead of invasive species

This year in particular was a rough year for spongy moths in northern Wisconsin.

The invasive species strips trees of their leaves eventually leading to die off.

“It's really hit Bayfield Peninsula really hard in some areas. It’s getting in some areas where it hasn't been previously. Wisconsin is on the front line of where the spongy moth is expanding into,” said Brian Sturtevant. He’s a research ecologist with the USDA Forest Service at the Northern Research Station in Rhinelander.

Spongy Moths are just one of the forest pests that his work focuses on.

Using nature to lessen the effects of climate change

“We’re seeing declines in the duration of lake ice each winter,” said (Stephen) Handler. “On the flip side, you are seeing warmer lake temperatures that lead to things like [the] higher likelihood of algal blooms and more decomposition.”

Experts say that forests are an important part of where we live.

“Forests are an economic engine in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest. From my discussions with loggers and other members of the forest industry, we have already seen [the] effects of climate change,” said Handler.

The surprising way that millions of new trees could transform America

A 2015 study monitored participants’ heart rates to measure acute stress responses in individuals who walked past vacant lots in Philadelphia before and after they were filled with trees. They found that looking at greener lots decreased heart rate.

“Trees calm us down, improve our mood and stress levels, and lower blood pressure,” says Michelle Kondo, a U.S. Forest Service social scientist who studies the health benefits of trees.

Making lawns more eco-friendly

Buckle up, everybody. We are about to talk about grass - specifically, grass lawns and the people who really, really do not like them.

To understand the roots of our grass lawn habit and how we can maybe break it, I called Susannah Lerman. She's a research ecologist with the United States Forest Service. She studies how urban and suburban yards can be more environmentally friendly and better for wildlife and pollinators. I started by asking her, are grass lawns really bad?

To Be Greener, Get Rid Of Your Grass

Who doesn't love a lush, perfectly manicured grass lawn? It turns out, a lot of people are actively trying to get rid of their lawns, ripping out grass in favor of native plants, vegetables, and flowers to attract pollinators.

As the realities of climate change become starker, more and more people are looking for ways to create environmentally friendly spaces.

NPR's Scott Detrow talks with research ecologist Susannah Lerman with the United States Forest Service about the impact of grass lawns on the environment and sustainable alternatives.

Study focused on creating tools needed to restore and manage resilient forests

“When we're thinking about climate change, that's a very, very large scale. That's why these projects are focusing at landscape-level resilience and restoration,” Christel Kern said.

WXPR sat down with Kern at the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Research Station in Rhinelander. She’s a research forester based there.

Rhinelander-based Forest Service researchers receive more than $2 million of BIL funds for studies

Project Leader Deahn Donnerwright says the best part of the [Bipartisan Infrastructure Law] funding is. “It increases our opportunities to work with lots of different agencies and groups, local governments on issues and concerns that we that we all have. The Forest Service's concerned about EAB [Emerald Ash Borer], so is the state of Wisconsin, so is the state of Michigan, so are counties. These are very common issues. We can find common ground. We can broaden it. BIL is also going to give us the chance to do some local employment. We will be hiring some people and hopefully, that brings in even more people into our community.” 

Fall colors in Pennsylvania are around the corner

Many people assume that the leaves change colors because they are dying, according to Kevin Smith, a supervisory plant physiologist at the U.S. Department of Forestry’s Northern Research Station. While the leaves do end up falling by the end of autumn, Smith said in order for a tree to produce the colors everyone loves it must be healthy.

“If you cut a branch off with green leaves and put it in a closet or let it dry out, you’re not going to get any of those color changes that we’re interested in and the reason for that is that the color change process is a physiological process based on the genetic program of the tree,” Smith said. “That’s [also] why different tree species have different colors.”

7 Native Bees in Your Yard

• Reducing yard maintenance, including mowing and raking, to create a little more wildness. “Less mowing provides the opportunity for spontaneous flowers such as clover, dandelion and native violets to grow, which in turn provide food for bees,” says Susannah Lerman, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service.

How one family is planning for its future — and its forest

Brett Butler, a research forester with the U.S. Forest Service, said dividing the land is a big concern for many small forestland owners.

“From my perspective, by far the biggest issue is keeping forests as forests,” he continued. “As long as we can keep it forest, most of the ecosystem services will continue to flow. We’ll still have water recharge, we’ll still have carbon sequestration, we’ll still be growing timber. But once we lose it, then, you know, all of that goes away.”

‘Prescribe Outside’ to Improve the Health of Philadelphia’s Children Through Access to Green Space, Nature

Prescribe Outside is a partnership among Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Awbury Arboretum, Let’s Go Outdoors, USDA Forest Service, and the Temple University Center for Sustainable Communities that helps children locate and use safe, accessible, and convenient public green space and discover the benefits of time spent in nature.

‘Prescribe Outside’ Launches to Improve the Health of Philadelphia’s Children Through Access to Green Space and Nature

Prescribe Outside is a Partnership Between Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Awbury Arboretum, Let’s Go Outdoors, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, and the Temple University Center for Sustainable Communities.

Study to gauge carbon losses - Researchers using LIDAR to determine the impacts of the Greenwood fire

“Nobody has done this before,” Randy Kolka told the Timberjay. Kolka is a soil scientist with the U.S. Forest Service and he was talking about a unique study to calculate how much carbon is lost when peatlands burn.

“I estimate that tons and tons of carbon are lost when peat burns,” Kolka said. “Before now, we’ve had no good way to determine this … This time next year, I’ll know how much.”

Pollinators or pristine lawn, the decision is getting complicated

“People like their lawns. I totally get it,” said Dr. Susannah Lerman, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Research Station, who admits to kind of enjoying cutting the grass. “You start something, you finish something, you get to see the result. It’s satisfying.”

But she, like most ecologists, knows that we have overdone our worship of flat, green spaces surrounding our homes and would like to see us dial it back.

NH fall foliage 2023: Why strong peak season is expected and where to enjoy it

“The best color comes from a healthy tree,” said tree physiologist Kevin Smith, who has worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service in Durham for 36 years. “So the best predictor of the fall foliage, in my opinion, is the trees being healthy at the onset of fall. And so far things look pretty good to me. Everything is shaping up to be a good season for foliage, and my basic recommendation is to get out and enjoy it.” 

These Trees Say So Much: Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in North Woodstock, New Hampshire - Why a little-known New Hampshire forest is one of the most studied and important in the world.

“We’re changing the seasons,” says Lindsey Rustad, research ecologist and U.S. Forest Service team leader for Hubbard Brook who’s been studying the forest since 1997. We’re in the forest on that summer day as the sun comes in and out of clouds. Lightly freckled, in a dark green Forest Service shirt, Rustad speaks with her whole body and moves with nimble ease through brush and over forest tangle, with a spark that often lights the eyes of people who spend a lot of time outdoors. She looks younger than 64, in part for the enthusiasm, the almost kid-like glee, she has when she explains what’s afoot in these woods.

Weather conditions are being manipulated here, something that ends up being both simpler and more complex than one might expect. To accelerate the arrival of spring warmth, snow cover is shoveled off a particular section and heaped somewhere else. To approximate a drought, a translucent platform is built over a plot of forest; sun gets in, rain does not.

Discovering the impact of wildfire on peatlands

In 2021, the Greenwood Fire burned over 26 thousand acres of land. This included peatlands, which play a crucial role in carbon storage. 

“Peatlands are an ecosystem that we have a lot of in Minnesota,” said U.S.D.A Forest Service Research Soil Scientist Randy Kolka. “They’re very deep organic soils. They only occupy about 3% of the planet, but they host about 30% of the carbon, and so they’re really disproportionately important for carbon and carbon cycling.”

The Heat is Killing Us: Climate change & rising temps are increasing gun violence

As our planet grapples with the consequences of man-made climate change and the excessive summer heat it is causing, a lesser-known repercussion is coming to light: its correlation with the uptick in gun-related incidents in America’s cities. But how exactly are rising temperatures and gun violence intertwined, and could addressing the effects of climate change in cities hold the key to curbing this alarming trend?

Study highlights employment trends at hydrologic experimental forests and ranges

To highlight trends and needs in the hydrological sciences, a group of women scientists with the Forest Service published a study, titled “Perspectives on the contributions of women to the hydrologic sciences and their changing demographics at USDA Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges,” in the June 2023 Journal of Hydrology, a special journal issue on Women in Hydrology.

116: Stewardship salons and social science in the US Forest Service with Lindsay Campbell

United Nations certifies phyto-recurrent selection for combating pollution

After two decades of development and testing, phyto-recurrent selection has been certified by the United Nations’ Decade on Ecosystem Restoration as a good practice within their “Framework for Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring” registry. The certified practice went live online in July 2023.

Boost your mental health by spending time in Philadelphia’s parks

Being outdoors — whether playing sports, exploring trails, or enjoying a picnic — is a great way to support mental health and wellness. And, in most cases, there is little or no cost.

“The physiological response to being outside in nature is real, and it’s measurable,” says Michelle Kondo, a research social scientist with the USDA Forest Service.

Moor for the Future

German story about peatland. Forest Service Northern Research Station's Randy Kolka discusses research on the connection between peatlands & climate change on Minnesota’s Marcell Experimental Forest.

A hero for our times: Forest Service attends comic-con

Every year, San Diego Comic-Con, the premier comic convention in the United States, celebrates superheroes both fictional and real. And while a comic convention may not be the first place you would expect to encounter a U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service research scientist; last month, attendees met USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station research ecologist Dr. Lindsey Rustad.

Tree canopy assessments support flood response effort in Vermont

A slow-moving weather system in the Northeast in early July 2023 led to rainfall of 6-9 inches in just a few days across Vermont and caused catastrophic flooding in the state. As the rain was falling, and community leaders realized how severe the flooding might become, Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne received a phone call from an associate in Vermont State Government asking for help. For the past 15 years O’Neil-Dunne has worked for the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Laboratory and the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station in a joint scientist position in a unique federal-academic partnership.

USDA Forest Research Station in Rhinelander Hosting Lab Update Ribbon Cutting; Open House

With an abundance of forests, we affectionately call this the Northwoods. The area also plays an important role in forest sciences, with a USDA Forest Research Station right in our back yard.

The Forest Service Laboratory is located just west of Rhinelander off of County K. Dating back to the 1950's the facility has played an important role in forest research from biotechnology to landscape ecology to wildfire research.

Northern Research Station celebrates new era of research

Some major improvements have wrapped up at the U.S. department of Agricultures Forest Service's Laboratory in Rhinelander.

On Friday, the Forest Service Northern Research Station celebrated their 60-plus years of research with a ribbon cutting ceremony, welcoming the future with updated labs at the facility.

"The labs were originally in the early 1970’s and they were not updated until this renovation that just occurred," said Deahn Donner a Landscape Ecologist.

Nature vs. Burnout: How the Great Outdoors Could Address the Burnout Epidemic

Michelle Kondo, PhD, a research social scientist for the U.S. Forest Service, says we shouldn’t sleep on the benefits nature can have on physical and mental health. “There is general evidence that nature is beneficial to our health,” she says. “As far as workplace burnout is a result of stress, research has shown that nature can restore our capacities, or help us cope with stress. In addition, workplace burnout might be related to a lack of strong, positive, and healthy relationships at work. There is very strong evidence that nature can help us connect with one another, and it can help us feel less isolated.” 

Grand Rapids Bio Dome part of Climate Change study

How peat affects climate change.

Why some parents are committing to spending 1,000 hours outside this year: 'My kids fall asleep a lot faster'

Michelle Kondo, a scientist with the U. S. Forest Service, tells Yahoo Life that the mental health benefits of outdoor play may be the most impressive. “Being outside can help improve our mood, it can reduce our stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression,” she says. “Time spent outside can reduce loneliness. Being outside can also improve how our brain functions. It helps us focus and pay attention.”