2018 Accomplishment Highlights

Center Accomplishments At-a-Glance

Refereed publications -- 58

Presentations, tours, and workshops -- 91

Research, Science Delivery, and Partnership Highlights

Carolina Hemlock Populations are Isolated and Imperiled

Do Roads Drive Forest Plant Invasions?

Family Forests Are the Ties That Bind the Landscape

Fire Weather Intelligence Portal Expanded to Entire Southern Region

Forest Service Contributes to Global Forest and Water Assessment for United Nations

ForWarn II: A Familiar Monitoring and Assessment Tool is Reborn

Groundwater Buffers Impacts of Drought and Thinning in Southern Pine Forests  

How Do Exotic Plants Invade Mountains?

Impacts of Wildland Fires on U.S. Fresh Water Resources are Variable

Invasive Plant Removal Restores Habitat for Wildlife Communities in a Desert Floodplain Ecosystem

Predictive Models Aid Detection of Illegal Marijuana Grow Sites

Researchers Assessing Landscape Change Around Southeastern Wood Pellet Mills

Southern Forested Wetlands Are Projected to Become Drier in the Future

The State of the Nation’s Forests Summarized in Annual Report

Study Compares Rarity and Evolutionary Distinctiveness of Trees in Protected and Unprotected Areas

Traditional Ecological Knowledge Helps Researchers Understand the Effects of Plant Harvesting

Working Group Builds on Best Practices to Aid Conservation Policy and Resource Management

International Activities

• Research Biologist Michelle Baumflek was selected to serve as the Deputy Coordinator for International Union of Forest Research Organizations Working Party 5.15.02, Non-wood Forest Products Culture.
• Research Ecologist Qinfeng Guo hosted six members of Jiangxi Academy of Forestry and led a tour of the Center's research facility at Research Triangle Park. 
• Guo also served as an Advisory Committee member of Sino-Ecologists Association Overseas (known as Sino-Eco).
• Research Ecologist Frank Koch served as the Communications Officer for the International Pest Risk Research Group. 
• Koch also collaborated with colleagues at McGill University on methods and data for modeling urban tree species/genera distributions.

• Research hydrologist Ge Sun hosted Xiaodong Liu from South China Agricultural University who analyzed long-term water flux data during one year of training with the Eastern Threat Center. resulting in a peer-reviewed journal article.

• Sun is currently hosting Zhengxiang Yu, a Visiting Scholar from Northeast Forestry University (China), whose research focuses on understanding effects of post-harvest forest dynamics on watershed hydrology.  

• Numerous scientists contributed presentations to international meetings, conferences, and workshops, including: Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance Innovation Summit; International Forum on Practices and Tendencies in Silviculture in the United States, Canada and Europe: Past, Present and Future; International Symposium on Society and Resource Management; Sixth International Workshop on the Genetics of Tree-Parasite Interactions; North American Congress for Conservation Biology; US-International Association of Landscape Ecology Annual Meeting; and Workshop on Data Mining in Earth System Science (held in conjunction with the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining).

Awards and Honors

• Research Hydrologist Ge Sun received the 2017 Chief's Honor Award in the category of ‘Applying Knowledge Globally’ in recognition of his research productivity, leadership, and partnerships that have furthered understanding of the relationships among forests and water in a changing environment.
  
• Sun also received the 2017 Deputy Chief's Distinguished Science Award "for his sustained productivity and leadership in forest hydrology research, including the development and application of hydrological models and tools for global natural resource management in a changing environment."
• Research Ecologist William Hargrove received the 2017 Southern Research Station Director’s Distinguished Scientist Award “for sustained, high-quality, creative scientific contributions in support of research, including leadership in ForWarn, ForeCASTS, and LanDAT projects.”
• Center Director Danny Lee received the 2017 Southern Research Station Director’s Science Delivery Award “in recognition of excellence in integrating advanced technologies, tools, and scientific understanding into Forest Service management.”
• Resource Information Specialist Erika Mack received the 2017 Southern Research Station Director’s Research Professional Support Award “in recognition of innovations and increased efficiency and usages of modeling tools while reducing development costs.”
• Climate Hub Fellow Sarah Wiener received an Extra Effort Award from Region 8 for her work on the census of monitoring efforts on national forests in the southern region.