Articles

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 new Southern Forest Outlook report on water is designed to inform forest sector decisionmakers and the interested public about observed trends, anticipated futures, and critical issues based on authoritative synthesis and interpretation of existing science, data, and 50-year projections.

Thanks to collaborators, the Southern Research Station now has access to a machine that can make biochar, a wood product with many potential uses. The team is currently cooking 10,000 pounds of biochar for an ecological restoration study.

To restore temperate southern woodlands, managers often replace loblolly and slash pines with longleaf and shortleaf pines. However, researchers found that retaining some loblolly and slash pine can save resources without affecting restoration goals.

The William B. Bankhead National Forest is a living laboratory with long-term studies on the effects of thinning and prescribed burning. This year, researchers conducted the 100th prescribed burn.

A huge mussel study in 92 streams across 13 states is underway. As part of that study, researchers needed an objective way to assess mussel health in each stream – so they developed the Mussel Assemblage Health Index and made it available as a spreadsheet tool.

A new protocol explains how to use Terrestrial Laser Scanning for fast and accurate fire effects monitoring.

Wildfire suppression is costly. Over the last decade, suppression has cost the USDA Forest Service and the Department of the Interior an average of $2.9 billion per year.

Hot droughts are of increasing concern for forests of the south. When temperatures are high and moisture is low, trees become vulnerable quickly. Meteorologists sometimes refer to these events as flash droughts, and one for the record books happened in Mississippi and Louisiana in 2023, emerging in late summer as the rains diminished, and the persistent heat shattered records.The consequences f...

In the Southern Appalachians, fires that kill mature trees create habitat for birds - especially the species that depend on young forests and early successional habitat. But even bird species that are not considered disturbance-dependent were more abundant in areas that burned more severely.

A new model for understanding hardwood markets is available. This tool is unique because it breaks down ten different species of hardwood, allowing researchers to account for species-specific market and forestry trends

Droughts can affect forests but there are resources for land managers - and research shows that forest management can help mitigate the effects of drought.

With partnerships, a model, and maps, fire managers on the Oconee National Forest in Georgia doubled the acres treated with prescribed fire.

The 2021 Forest Health Monitoring report includes short- and long-term forest health assessments from the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, and the U.S. Caribbean territories. Specific chapters address status and trends in forest wildfire, drought, insect and disease effects, tree mortality, and satellite-detected canopy disturbance

A study on how fire influences air movement at small scales gives researchers insight into wind patterns in larger fires - a critical component of modeling tools for practitioners.

Forest Service researchers provide agency land managers with science-based resources for restoring upland oaks by collecting acorns, growing, and planting high-quality seedlings.