Forest Service science supports the delivery of clean water to American households and businesses. Water providers and land managers rely on information from applied research to make management decisions affecting water quality and quantity. Additionally, America’s forests and rangelands support healthy rivers and lakes which provide fishing, boating, and recreation activities vital to many rural economies.

Key Research Contributions 

Supporting Water Security 

• Forest Service scientists quantify the contributions of all forested lands – National Forests and other – in providing drinking water to downstream communities. Research also quantifies national forest contributions to streamflow for irrigation and hydropower production. 
• The Forests to Faucets Assessment identifies the most important sources of water for the American public and businesses. The Assessment maps these watersheds and looks at potential threats, such as fire and land use change, to the continued delivery of water. 

Protecting Communities and Livelihoods

• Forest Service research develops accurate and rapid methods for mapping burned areas and soil burn severity; this informs emergency response and restoration that is critical for the protection of lives and property that are downslope or downstream from debris flows and flooding. 
• Research tools are used to prioritize road maintenance to help ensure access to rural communities. 
• Aquatic invasive species cause enormous economic losses to agriculture, fisheries, and other industries. Forest Service tools are used to map distributions of aquatic invasive species which improve early detection, monitoring, and control or eradication efforts. 
• U.S. fisheries support 2.3 million jobs and have a combined value of almost $500 billion. Water quality is especially important to cold water sport fisheries. Scientists are developing tools to track water quality to help manage cold water sport fisheries. 
• Forest Service research helps predict drought and the impacts of drought. Through soil moisture monitoring and modeling, scientists are helping land managers and local communities see drought coming and make adjustments in advance. For example, this information can help ranchers think about how many cow-calf pairs to purchase before the growing season when drought is predicted. 

Research Outcomes 

• Supporting Forest Service science supports management of more durable road networks. 
• Research continues to develop and improve tools for effective post-fire mitigation response. 
• Research provides decision support to reduce economic vulnerability for local communities associated with droughts. 
• Science improves detection of and response to economically costly aquatic invasive species via research mapping platforms