Research That's For the Birds: Protecting Habitats and Ecosystem Services using i-Tree Tools

Abstract

Birds are part of the ecological foundation on which all life depends. For decades, USDA Forest Service scientists have studied birds to understand and quantify the far-reaching ways that they affect ecosystem services (life-sustaining and other benefits humans derive from nature) and function as environmental warning systems. This work is expected to become more important in light of increasingly extreme weather events, urban expansion, deforestation, climate change, invasive species, and diminishing biodiversity. This research has recently been integrated with a Forest Service tree and forest assessment tool called i -Tree. By combining and augmenting decades of data with this powerful software tool, researchers are now able to create rapid assessments and visual aids that can inform land management decisions across the United States, and globally. Today, scientists with the Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry (IITF) and its partners are using this tool to support land managers and strengthen international cooperation across the Caribbean, Latin America, and North America, including Mexico and Canada.

Citation

USDA Forest Service. 2021. Research That's For the Birds: Protecting Habitats and Ecosystem Services using i-Tree Tools. The Cross-Pollinator. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Urban Field Station Network. Issue 4. 9p.