Forest ThreatNet

A New Focus on Climate Change
EFETAC's Forest Health Monitoring engages in climate change

Global climate change is a top Forest Service priority, affecting forests directly and indirectly and presenting many unknowns, challenges, and opportunities for forest management. These themes sparked lively discussions during the climate change focus group at the national FHM Work Group Meeting held February 11-14 in San Antonio, Texas. Bill Bechtold, EFETAC’s FHM team lead, co-organized the event, which included fellow EFETAC team members Danny C. Lee, Steve McNulty, Bill Hargrove, and Kevin Potter as presenters and panelists.

The FHM focus group supported the agency’s global change research strategy and engaged scientists and policy makers in discussions to describe climate change and its potential threat to forest ecosystem health. Participants heard that increases in fire, extreme weather, disease, and insect events will influence forest ecosystems’ response to climate change. The session revealed ways FHM could advance climate change understanding, identify internal and external collaborative opportunities, and allocate program resources.

The session culminated with six resolutions designed to guide FHM’s future climate change efforts. Visit http://www.fhm.fs.fed.us for additional information.


EFETAC and WWETAC Highlight 2007 Accomplishments

The Threat Centers have reached another milestone! The Eastern Forest and Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Centers released their first accomplishment report in February. This joint report features progress of recent projects and collaborations as well as ongoing and future research efforts focused on threat detection, predictive tools, assessment and planning, and synthesis and communication. The 2007 Accomplishment Report for the Eastern and Western Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Centers is available at www.forestthreats.org.


EFETAC Scientist Featued on National Public Radio's All Things Considered

In January 2008, National Public Radio (NPR) aired a story entitled "Trees Lost to Katrina May Present Climate Challenge" as part of the Climate Connections series on the daily news program All Things Considered. Steve McNulty, SGCP team leader, referenced his field surveys and aerial photography to help quantify carbon dioxide that will be released from trees damaged during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  Read the full article at http://www.forestthreats.org/news-events/in-the-news.


Asheville Citizen-Times Helps Launch EFETAC's New Web Tool

EFETAC Director Danny C. Lee was interviewed following the initial release of the forest threats summary viewer. "Forest Service Unveils New Threat Summary Online," highlighted the web-based tool that provides descriptions, images, distribution maps, and forestry contact information related to various forest health threats in the eastern U.S.  Find your favorits threat at http://www.forestthreats.org/tools/forest-threat-summary-viewer.


More FHM News...

FHM recently released the 2005 national technical report, providing results of forest health analyses from a national perspective. Additionally, peruse a synopsis of yearly reports in The Forest Health Monitoring National Technical Reports: Examples of Analyses and Results from 2001-2004 at http://www.forestthreats.org.

EFETAC's Climate Change Research Featured in Compass Magazine

EFETAC is featured in the 10th issue of the Southern Research Station’s quarterly science magazine, Compass, themed “What do forests have to do with climate change?” Articles feature EFETAC’s climate change-related work, an interview with EFETAC Director Danny C. Lee, and an introduction to four new EFETAC scientists. Read more about the Center’s research and scientists at http://www.forestthreats.org.