Forest ThreatNet

 Special publications / products

• A single hurricane can cause over $1 billion in forestry losses, and the intensity of hurricanes is increasing due to climate change. Therefore, the USDA Southeast Climate Hub developed the Hurricane Preparation and Recovery Guide for Pine Forest Landowners in the Southeast U.S. This guide can help reduce economic loss and increase the reliability of wood and wood product supplies from the region.

• Annual summaries of forest health are key to our understanding of forest change over short and long time frames. Annual Forest Health Monitoring publications are now more accessible than ever, thanks to fully re-designed web pages of the U.S. Forest Service Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) program.  “Forest Health Monitoring: National Status, Trends, and Analysis 2020” is the twentieth such summary in a series published by the Southern Research Station. The entire series is available to be browsed, searched and downloaded by year, topic, or chapter, along with highlights and additional resources.

• Forests provide drinking water to the nation and protect drinking water supplies. The USDA Forest Service's Forest to Faucets program is a unique tool for understanding and visualizing this ecosystem service, as well as the stressors that threaten it. A new, user-friendly tool integrates maps, hydrologic models, and databases of surface drinking water supply across the country: Forests to Faucets Version 2 (F2F2).

• CompassLive makes Southern Research Station science available to the public through short articles that highlight useful and often fascinating new findings. Threat Center projects and publications are frequently highlighted, including these recent examples: Defining the U.S. land base in support of the Resources Planning Act Assessment;  Linking tree water use and soil moisture;  Research Sustains Ecosystem Services;  Mapping Disturbances to Protect the Future of Our Forests.

• The Forest Service Research and Development newsletter highlights science news across the agency. Check out the latest issues, and subscribe to receive future issues.

 Center awards & honors

• Threat Center Director Ge Sun was named the recipient of the 2021 Icko Iben Multidisciplinary Communications Award, from the American Water Resources Association (AWRA). Established in 1971, this award recognizes persons who have made outstanding contributions in promoting communication among the various disciplines concerned with water resources issues. It honors the late Dr. Icko Iben, a co-founder of AWRA.
• Dr. Sun was also included in the Reuters Hot List of influential climate change scientists (#634). Reuters identified 1,000 scientists with the biggest impact on climate change science, considering three measures of science influence related to number of publications, citations, and public outreach.
• Threat Center Scientist Lars Pomara received the 2021 Southern Research Station Director's Award for Science Delivery. The award recognized Pomara's contributions to the Landscape-Level Integration and Shared Stewardship initiative, a collaborative program for enhancing regional forest ecosystem management and Shared Stewardship across the Southern Region.
• Threat Center scientist and team leader Frank Koch was elected as a Fellow of the International Pest Risk Research Group. His election was supported by the awards panel in recognition of "exceptional sustained dedication to promoting the aims of the Group, and for significant contributions to pest risk research."
• The research article "Forest Area Change in the Shifting Landscape Mosaic of the Continental United States from 2001 to 2016,” coauthored by Threat Center scientist Kurt Riitters, received Editor's Choice recognition in the journal Land.

Select new Center publications

• The ecology of COVID-19 and related environmental and sustainability issues
• Scientists' warning on extreme wildfire risks to water supply
• Considerations regarding species distribution models for forest insects
• Continent-wide tree fecundity driven by indirect climate effects
• Heterotrophic respiration and the divergence of productivity and carbon sequestration
• Identification, mitigation, and adaptation to salinization on working lands in the U.S. Southeast
• Tools and technologies for quantifying spread and impacts of invasive species
• Recent immigrant insect fauna—another look at a classic analysis
• The role of regional ecological assessment in quantifying ecosystem services for forest management
• The United States' implementation of the Montreal Process indicator of forest fragmentation

• See all Threat Center publications in 2021.

• Visit Treesearch for access to full-text, peer-reviewed publications from across the Forest Service.

Personnel updates

Erin Crockett joined the Threat Center's Raleigh group as an ORISE (Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education) Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2021. His current work uses satellite and field-based measurements to assess the roles of structural and biological diversity for productivity and carbon cycling in forest ecosystems. Erin holds a PhD in natural resource sciences from McGill University, an MSc in biodiversity conservation and management from the University of Oxford, and a BSc in environmental sciences from the University of British Columbia.

Nick Gould joined the Threat Center's Asheville group as an ORISE Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2021. Nick's Threat Center research combines landscape ecology and decision science to foster forest sustainability through the development of tools for forest management decisions across the Southern Region. Nick holds a PhD in Wildlife Biology from North Carolina State University, an MS in Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University, and a BA in Natural Resource Management and Policy from the University of Massachusetts.  

D’Andre Grady is a new contract Research Assistant with the USDA Southeast Climate Hub. D’Andre has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from University of North Carolina at Pembroke. His responsibilities at the hub include delivering adaptation resources and addressing information gaps for reducing agricultural drought risk in the southeast.

Ning Liu joined the Eastern Threat Center as an ORISE Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2020. Before joining EFETAC, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory on quantifying the role of forest lands in providing surface drinking water supply for the United States. His research interests lie in multi-disciplinary fields that focus on land-water-climate interactions. Ning received his PhD in Environmental Science from Murdoch University in Australia. 

Sandhya Nepal joined the Threat Center as an ORISE Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2021. Sandhya’s Threat Center research focuses on forest sustainability and providing decision support for forest management in the southeastern US, including analyzing trade-offs among socio-economic and environmental priorities. She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Tennessee, an MS in Forestry from the University of Kentucky, an MS in Environmental Management from the University of North Dakota, and a BS in Forestry from Nepal.

Renai Nez is a new contract Research Assistant with the USDA Southeast Climate Hub. Renai holds a bachelor’s degree in Conservation Ecology from New Mexico State University and a master’s in Urban and Environmental Planning from Arizona State University. Her work with the Hub focuses on supporting forest health, climate change impacts, and ecosystem services, through engagement with landowners and resource managers, and development of webinars, workshops, manuals, and study guides.

Yusuf Serengil began a term in 2021 as a Fulbright Visiting Scientist Scholar working with the Threat Center's Raleigh group on the WaSSI model. He is a full-time professor at Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, and the Chair of Near East Forestry and Range Commission and a Steering Committee Member of the Food and Agriculture Organization's Committee on Forestry (COFO). He is an expert on forestry, forest hydrology and carbon accounting with a background in climate change policy and implementation. Yusuf also worked at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in 2005-2006 as a postdoctoral researcher.

Cameron Stelly is a new contract Research Assistant with the USDA Southeast Climate Hub. Cameron holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Geosciences from Texas A&M University. His primary focus with the Hub is coordinating a revision of the Silvics of North America to reflect current forestry science, climate change impacts, and ecosystem services. 

Moving on...

Nancy Gibson has taken a permanent hydrologist position with the USDA Rocky Mountain Research Station’s Air, Water, and Aquatic Environments Program in Moscow, Idaho. During her time with the SE Climate Hub, Nancy led efforts to identify, mitigate, and adapt to salinization on working lands, and developed resources to help producers reduce drought risk.

Kelsey Bakken has taken a permanent Biological Science Technician position with the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service’s Domestic & Emergency Scientific Support Group in Raleigh, North Carolina. During her time with the SE Climate Hub, Kelsey lead efforts to develop ecoregion-specific forest threat assessments and resources to help forest managers make climate-informed decisions.

Adam Alsamadisi has taken a permanent teaching position at the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. During his time as an ORISE postdoctoral fellow with the Threat Center's Asheville group, Adam developed landscape assessment approaches for adaptive ecosystem management and planning, working closely with the USFS Southern Region.