Understory

Studies throughout the United States have repeatedly shown that communities are losing tree canopy due to a wide range of threats. Over the 2007 to 2015 time period the City of Baltimore experienced an approximate 1% increase in tree canopy.

Watercourse crossings associated with timber harvesting can produce substantial amounts of stream sediment. To reduce the potential for crossing failures and resulting impacts, the California Forest Practice Rules specify that all constructed or reconstructed permanent watercourse crossings must accommodate the estimated 100- year flow, including debris and sediment.Three methods for making office-based estimates of 100-year recurrence-interval streamflows for ungaged basins are presented: (1) an analytical relationship between storm precipitation, watershed characteristics, and runoff, (2) re...

The FIA Annual Business Reports evaluate the performance of the FIA program to ensure accountability and transparency to FIA partners, supporters and customers. Modeled on a corporate business report, they contain basic business information about the FIA program including accomplishments, performance measures, plans for the next fiscal year, agreements with other parties, and basic financial and staffing data. These reports are prepared by the National Office staff of the FIA Program, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington, DC.See more information for fiscal years 2021 and ...

This document presents the study plan for the Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE). FASMEE is a large-scale interagency effort to (1) identify the critical measurements necessary to improve operational wildland fire and smoke prediction systems, (2) collect observations through a coordinated field campaign, and (3) use these measures and observations to advance science and modeling capabilities. FASMEE is aimed at operational modeling systems in use today as well as the next generation of modeling systems expected to become operationally useful in the next 5 to 10 years.

A Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Economy Matters podcast about Heirs' Property.

Fire is an inevitable and ecologically important process that maintains the health of forest ecosystems in the Western United States. A century of fire suppression has increased fuel loads to the point that inevitable wildfires often burn too fast and too hot to be contained, thus overwhelming suppression efforts. In response, national forests in the West are increasingly using large prescribed fires, as well as allowing the moderate spread of unplanned wildfires under favorable conditions, to make forests more resilient to drought, bark beetle outbreaks, and wildfires under extreme conditions...

As the impacts of climate change continue to manifest throughout the world with greater frequency, the question of how to best prepare for and recover from natural disasters is more crucial than ever. Evidence shows that beyond ripping through physical infrastructure and claiming lives, natural disasters damage social networks and community bonds, making the impacts perceptible long after houses are rebuilt. The importance of social infrastructure in disaster planning is becoming more widely researched and considered, and it is proven that communities with strong social ties are better prepare...