Fire shapes landscapes and lives, but how do humans shape fire? By measuring wildfire ignition, mitigation, and recovery, as well as the wildland-urban interface—where houses meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland vegetation—scientists are uncovering the complex dynamics between wildfire and human behavior.  Research social scientist, Miranda Mockrin, sheds light on the rapidly growing wildland-urban interface and the challenges it poses for fire management and community...

Fire affects forests above and belowground. Travel along on a multiscale journey from forest-wide influences to molecular-level changes, unraveling the knowns and unknowns of fire effects on soil, vegetation, and carbon.  Sharon Hood explains how fire affects tree mortality, tracing the pivotal role of carbohydrates in a tree's post-fire survival. Dexter Strother investigates the production and persistence of black carbon in soils, shedding light on its potential climate implications....

From whipping winds that fan flames to swirling smoke that obscures visibility, fire weather is a complex phenomenon. In Episode 4 of "Afire," hear from three meteorologists at the intersection of the intricate relationships between fire weather, wind, and smoke.  Brian Potter explains how large-scale atmospheric patterns, like extended dry periods before a wildfire, may contribute to the development of extreme fire events. Natalie Wagenbrenner discusses WindNinja, a high-resolution wind...

Prescribed fire plays a vital role in creating healthy landscapes that better survive natural and human-caused disturbances, while reducing wildfire risk to communities, infrastructure, and natural and cultural resources. Episode 3 of "Afire" highlights three scientists and partnerships that are attempting to better understand and utilize prescribed fire. From Georgia, ecologist Joe O’Brien explains how researchers and forest managers are forming unique meetings that spark fresh ideas and...

Indigenous tribes gained their unique understanding of fire, and the role of fire on the landscape, long before European settlers came to what is now called North America. Since then, the relationship between federal fire management and indigenous perspectives has often been one of misunderstanding and mistrust. On Episode 2 of "Afire," join Forest Service scientists, Frank Kanawha Lake, a tribal descendant, and Serra Hoagland, a tribal member, as they explain the ways in which Forest Service...

Fire is a form all of its own, but a simple way to understand fire is as a swarm. A swarm of bees. Or starlings. Or mosquitos. A spreading fire is a swarm of ignitions, a series of small fires over and over.  Season 4 of Forestcast is a series of fires, a series of voices. It’s a 360-degree introduction to fire from a scientific standpoint. The story of how fire research shapes our landscapes, and our lives. Through kaleidoscoping voices from across the country, listeners will be taken...

Once spanning nearly 6 million acres in Missouri's Ozarks, the shortleaf pine and oak woodland ecosystem has dwindled to 100,000 acres today. Along with the loss of this habitat, a bird—the brown-headed nuthatch—disappeared as well. However, after decades of woodland restoration, the brown-headed nuthatch has returned to Missouri—by plane. Over two summers in 2020 and 2021, a team of scientists successfully captured and flew 102 birds from Arkansas to Missouri, marking the bird’s return to...

Cindi West has over 30 years of experience working across private industry, academia, and federal government in a variety of jobs to ensure sustainability of natural resources. In February 2021 she assumed the position of Director of the Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Lab. She has served in various leadership roles in the Forest Service, including as the Director of the Office of Sustainability & Climate Change, Associate Deputy Chief for R&D, Director for Resource...

Maggie Hardy is the program manager of the Rocky Mountain Research Station Forest and Woodland Ecosystems Program, a group of scientists that develops and delivers scientific knowledge and management tools for sustaining and restoring the health, biodiversity, productivity, and ecosystem processes of forest and woodland landscapes. Before joining the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Maggie served as Chief Regulatory Scientist and as an Executive Director with the Australian Pesticides and...

Research soil scientist Deb Page-Dumroese’s research interests center around maintaining soil productivity during and after land management activities. As site principal investigator for several North American Long-Term Soil Productivity Study plots, Deb is well-versed in the pre- and post-treatment sampling necessary to determine changes in above- and below-ground nutrient properties associated with harvesting, organic matter removal, and biochar additions. In partnership with the Missoula...

Research plant pathologist, Jenny Juzwik, conducts studies on diseases of trees that impact forest health and productivity. Her career-long interest and passion has been the study of interactions among microorganisms and insects associated with disease occurrence and development. One particular focus has been on the insects responsible for transmission of the oak wilt fungus, Bretziella fagacearum. In 2014 she completed research that involved elucidation of the major biotic determinants of...

Research social scientist, Lindsay Campbell, explores the dynamics of civic stewardship, environmental governance, and sustainability policymaking--with a particular emphasis on issues of social and environmental justice—all from New York City. She is a founding member of the New York City Urban Field Station, which was jointly created by the Northern Research Station and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The Urban Field Station develops and applies adaptive management...

Ecologist Sjana Schanning’s fieldwork has taken her from the Rincon Mountains of Arizona, to the the winter woods of Wisconsin, to the summer shores of Michigan’s Isle Royale. But, she’s recently shifted away from the field towards data analysis, our cities’ trees and the Urban FIA Program. Sjana collects field data and performs data analysis and reporting for the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program. FIA data provides critical status and trend information to resource managers, policy...

Ecologist Susannah Lerman walks us through her career and life, from falling in love with birds in Israel, to making something more of mowing, to hosting a motherhood workshop, to the mentors that enabled her to create a career out of science. Susannah’s research goal is to improve the sustainability of urban and human-dominated landscapes for birds, bees and other wildlife, and advancing human well-being through strengthening connections between people and nearby nature. Related Research: ...

Ecologist Chelcy Miniat shares watershed moments of her career and life, from a spark of science in sixth grade, to her time at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, to her decisions about if and when to have children. Chelcy is the program manager of the Rocky Mountain Research Station Maintaining Resilient Dryland Ecosystems (MRDE) program, a group of scientists that investigates the biology, use, management, and restoration of grasslands, shrublands, and deserts. Her own research is centered...

Ecologist Sara Brown takes us through eight chapters of her career and the 10 mentors that made her, from wildland firefighting, to smokejumping, to teaching in New Mexico, to directing the Missoula Fire Science Lab. Sara is a classically trained ecologist, with a focus on fire ecology. Before her return to the Forest Service in 2015, she was an Assistant Professor of Forestry at New Mexico Highlands University. She taught wildfire science and ecology courses, and enjoyed working on research...

To celebrate the immeasurable impact of women in our nation’s history, and to honor the scientists who have inspired others to dream, work, study, serve and succeed, Forecast is kicking off a special 10-episode series highlighting women’s perspectives in research over the past 50 years. Eleven scientists from the Northern Research Station and Rocky Mountain Research Station will share their experiences from before, during and after careers with the USDA Forest Service. Stories of mentors and...

Beech bark disease has been killing American beech trees in eastern North America since the late 1890s. In northern New England, New York, and the Maritimes where the disease is most severe, groups of disease resistant trees occasionally occur. Genetic studies reveal that trees in groups are families, and distribution patterns suggest that they were “planted” by blue jays. Related Research: American Beech Resistance to Cryptococcus fagisuga (1983) Forest Insect & Disease Leaflet 75...

The number one way you can stop an insect invasion or pathogen from spreading is by stopping it from ever starting. Who says geneticists and ecologists can’t act in the same way—taking action before a tree is ever in danger? With ash, proactive and collaborative breeding is already taking place, and it could be a roadmap for the future of combating tree species restorations. Related Research: Green Ash Trees That Survive Beetle Infestation Pass on Their Resistance Through Propagation and...

Dutch elm disease (DED) is one of the most commonly known and destructive tree diseases in the world. The disease was first observed in Ohio in 1930, and by 1976, only 34 million of the estimated 77 million elms present in U.S. urban locations remained. Research on American elm from the 1970s to the present has focused in large part on the identification of American elm individuals that can withstand the DED pathogen. To increase American elm’s long-term recovery as a canopy tree, it is...

A hundred years ago, the American chestnut was the redwood of the East. It was big, and it was everywhere, especially in the southern Appalachians. But, today, it’s just a shrub and is, functionally, extinct. With chestnuts having gone through such a dramatic decline, restoration has been a priority, and it’s been a restoration effort unlike many others. It’s been one of the most passionate efforts an American tree has ever seen. Related Research: American Chestnut Oral History Project...

Tree species restoration—especially with species that are threatened with extinction—isn't even on the table unless you have resistant planting stock. But, trees live on another timescale than humans—a much longer one. And, to be a geneticist, to breed, your job is to infiltrate that timeline, and to understand it. By understanding that timeline, you can begin to fiddle with it, fiddle with time, and with the future. The future of that plant, but also the future of our planet. Genetics allow...

In season one of Forestcast, entomologists showed us the ways we slow insects from attacking and killing trees. This season, we’ll meet another set of scientists, scientists who have been attacking the issue of non-native invasive insects and pathogens from a different angle. Chemicals and biological control can buy trees time, but they cannot completely control the non-native insects that are attacking trees that have never experienced these insects before. We need something on top of those...

Mac Callaham, a research ecologist, goes searching alone in Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest for one of Brood X’s most-southern cicada emergences. Produced by the USDA's Forest Service Northern Research Station.