Full Project Title: Improving Forests to Faucets data and analyses to support landscape scale restoration decision-making for benefiting water quality

Project Identification Number: ERR07 

This team is updating Forests to Faucets 2.0, a tool that shows where forests provide clean drinking water and how much water is provided to different communities. The updates focus on data layers and algorithms for the eastern U.S., which includes the agency’s Southern and Eastern regions. The tool is designed for land managers who want to prioritize restoration projects for places that could benefit the greatest number of people downstream from forested watersheds. 

An overall goal of this research is to improve the understanding of fire and water in the East. The team is synthesizing information from multiple experimental forests and other sites to show how prescribed fire, wildfire, and other activities affect water quality at the local level. The research is designed to provide land managers with tools for understanding benefits and trade-offs for prescribed burning in the East.

This research was funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Ecosystem Restoration, Provision 40804.