Region Archives: US East

Antonino Malacrino

Over the past decades, fire seasons are getting longer and extreme wildfires have become more frequent, more intense and larger. …Fire leaves a dramatic and noticeable impact on the landscape — scorched trees, missing canopies and a forest floor devoid of plants and shrubs. But it has underground impact as well. “Within the context of fire ecology, we know a lot about plants and a lot about animals. We know a bit less about microbes,” said Antonino Malacrino, an assistant professor in the Clemson University Department of Biological Sciences. “Some studies show that if you have a severe wildfire, the soil microbiome is impacted. You can see the signature of that fire in the soil microbiome even after decades.” But very little information is known about what happens after a fire to the microbial community in terms of diversity, composition and the ecological processes that drive the assembly of the microbial community.

After days of tremendous firefighting effort, a team of tall-tree climbers finally extinguished the fire burning inside the historic Doerner Fir tree in the Southern Oregon Coast Range. The tree is estimated to be roughly 450 years old and was the tallest Douglas fir in the world at 327 feet before the blaze. Volunteer tree climbers Damien Carré and Logan Collier scaled the tree Thursday afternoon and used a hose to put out the last of the flames burning inside the tree. Then, they helped set up a sprinkler system to prevent the fire from reigniting. “I’m still kind of zinging from the whole thing,” said Carré, who is the owner/operator of Oregon Tree Service in Oregon City. “I feel it was very successful, and I’m very proud and honored to be able to do it.” …They have ruled out lightning as the cause based on weather data.

Once a month, researchers hike through the woods in the Baraboo Hills to check on small boxes strapped to tree trunks. The boxes hold microphones that are running 24 hours a day, capturing the soundscape of the forest. But for a research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, they could be an important way to learn about the health of forests. The Soundscape Baselines Project is an effort to record a full year of audio in untouched forests all over the world. Bioacoustics enable researchers to get a fuller picture of the forest, the species that inhabit it and how they change over time, said Zuzana Burivalova, the project’s founder. …Burivalova’s team and their partners are recording in six locations around the world: Ecuador, Peru, Gabon, Germany, Brunei and Wisconsin. …“These new technologies, like bioacoustics, artificial intelligence … they’re finally enabling us to really understand what is out there and how it’s changing,” she said.

ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service announced it is investing more than $2.1 million in four projects across nine states in the Southern Region to restore state and private forestlands. These investments directly support the agency’s efforts to reduce wildfire risk, increase timber production, and expand rural economies, while providing critical support to landowners across management jurisdictions as they work to promote healthy, productive forests that benefit rural communities. The investments, totaling more than $7 million nationwide, are being delivered as competitive grants through the Landscape Scale Restoration program. Of the total funding, $600,000 will support two projects for federally recognized tribes. …In the Southeast, protecting wildlife habitat and restoring important forest ecosystems such as longleaf pine and oak are important priorities to ensure continued economic productivity of rural working lands.

…a University of Delaware professor has found that there is something of value to be learned from what’s left behind in the remnants of a wildfire. The charred debris left in the wake of wildfires … is known as wildfire char. UD’s Pei Chiu, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, studies wildfire chars and the ways they just might prove useful in reducing methane, a powerful gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. Methane emissions come from many different sources, ranging from livestock manure to landfills and wastewater treatment plants. This work also informs his research on biochar — man-made chars created from leftover wood chips, rice husks, corn stover and other agricultural biomass — that can be used in soil amendments, stormwater treatment and other applications. Chiu shares five important facts about char — both natural (wildfire char) and manmade (biochar). 

The US Forest Service kicked off timber sales in the Hoosier National Forest this week despite resistance from advocacy groups and Gov. Mike Braun, who called the federal project “misguided.” The timber auction is part of a controversial forest management plan called the Houston South Project — an initiative the USFS says will promote tree growth, reduce disease and move the landscape toward “desirable conditions.” Local environmental advocates have been suing the agency to halt operations since 2020, saying the project could jeopardize the quality of drinking water 130,000 Hoosiers rely on in Lake Monroe. But the project is plowing ahead, despite local outcry and direct pleas from Braun to halt the project. The Forest Service declined to immediately comment to IndyStar’s request, instead asking for one to two weeks to respond. …The project includes prescribed burns on 13,500 acres of forest and permitting timber harvests on another 4,300 acres across the next 10-15 years.

Near the bottom of a shady hillside in Jericho, a lone beech tree stretches high into the canopy, a relic of a bygone forest. Through luck or (hopefully) genetics, this mighty tree has avoided contracting beech bark disease—a fatal fungal pathogen that has proven deadly to mature beech trees. And it stands just outside a hotspot where a new pathogen called beech leaf disease (BLD) is spreading across Vermont forests. “Beech is here a lot as a sapling … but if you look out into the forest it’s not really common in the overstory,” said Jess Wikle Ph.D. ’24, lecturer in forestry and manager of the University of Vermont’s Research Forests. The beech trees that do succumb often send out a series of root sprouts before they die, turning a forest of big trees into a thicket of saplings. Beech leaf disease is different. It seems to be spreading faster and young beech trees tend to die first.

State foresters Tuesday recorded the first deaths of beech trees from a disease that just arrived in the state four years ago and is now present in all 16 counties. Scientists say beech leaf disease could decimate a species that’s common in Maine woods and an important food source for wildlife. An invasive microscopic roundworm called a nematode causes the disease, which was first detected in Ohio in 2012 and has since rapidly spread north and east. Aaron Bergdahl, a forest pathologist with the Maine Forest Service, said while checking a monitoring plot in the MidCoast Tuesday morning, scientists made an unfortunate discovery: the first tree deaths from the disease. …Bergdahl said there are currently no practical forest-level treatments for beech leaf disease, but there are for homeowners.

Texas A&M Forest Service and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative launched an online forestry education course—Forest Literacy: Understanding the Values of Trees, Forests and Sustainability. The online course is designed to provide access to forest and natural resource concepts to all formal and informal educators, academic administrators, natural resource personnel and others who engage in public outreach about forests across the United States and Canada. The purpose of the course is to empower educators, parents and community members to deepen their understanding of forests and inspire the next generation of environmental stewards. …Topics covered in the course include the ecological and societal roles of forests; forest ecosystem functions and indicators of forest health; forests’ roles in human well-being, biodiversity and climate resilience; deforestation, urbanization, pollution and environmental impacts on forest ecosystems; forest health management; and personal forest stewardship encouragement.

The Nature Conservancy announced it planted 2.5 million trees in northern Minnesota this year in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and three county land departments. This is a record number for the organization, and the second consecutive year the program has planted more than 2 million tree seedlings The tree seedlings were planted on public lands—across 5,810 acres of national forest, state forest, state park and county-managed forest lands—and covered six counties, including Cook, Lake, Saint Louis, Itasca, Cass and Carlton County. The planting areas included 1.8 miles along scenic Highway 61 and 41 miles of stream, river and lakeshore that connect to Lake Superior. It also included 1,740 acres of moose habitat enhancement, completed in partnership with the Ruffed Grouse Society and Minnesota Moose Habitat Collaborative—whose tribal representation is critical in maintaining habitat for this species of cultural importance to Indigenous communities.

©US Forest Service

A new logging plan for the Green Mountain National Forest could harvest almost 5 million cubic feet of timber, or enough trees to fill 5,000 school buses. The Telephone Gap Integrated Resource project was approved on June 13 after seven years of assessment. It will manage 72,000 acres of federal, state and private land primarily in the towns of Brandon, Chittenden, Goshen, Killington, Mendon, Pittsfield and Pittsford, according to the U.S. Forest Service’s Final Decision Notice, a document outlining the new plan. The Forest Service said in its final plan that the Telephone Gap project would improve wildlife habitat, restore soils and wetlands, allow for prescribed burns and trail building and increase logging. But the project has received both praise and pushback from environmental organizations in Vermont over the last few years of its development.

The Buckeye State is seeing another success story unfold with bobcats. The bobcat (Lynx rufus) is a species that is native to Ohio, and one of seven wild cat species found in North America. …Once widespread in Ohio, the wild felines became locally extinct in the mid-1800s due to extensive deforestation and unregulated hunting. Beginning in the 1850s, occasional reports of bobcats surfaced, but prior to 2000, there were never more than five sightings confirmed by the ODNR in a given year, said Lindsey Krusling, a communications specialist with the Division of Wildlife. … In 2024, there were 777 sightings, according to the department’s most recent data. …Krusling attributed the bobcats’ rising population in Ohio to habitat restoration, as forested areas are currently expanding in the eastern United States. “Bobcats, they are very cryptic species, where they are mostly nocturnal, they don’t like to be seen, so they prefer those forested areas,” Krusling said.

For 11 straight years, the National Arbor Day Foundation has recognized UAB as a Tree Campus USA. The recognition is for UAB’s work to plant and care for the more than 4,400 healthy trees on campus, while engaging students and employees in learning about and preserving them. UAB has been honored for the past six years with the National Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree Campus Healthcare designation. The national recognition program celebrates health institutions that make a mission-aligned impact on community wellness through tree education, investment and community engagement. The university’s urban forest is managed by the UAB Facilities Division, which maintains data on its trees: An ongoing project includes collecting details on the more than 17 genus and 24 tree species currently across campus. Students played an important part in helping identify and maintain data on the trees.

WASHINGTON — Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) today introduced the bicameral, bipartisan Loggers Economic Assistance and Relief Act, which would establish a new program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support loggers who have lost income due to natural disasters. …Current law excludes loggers from the kinds of disaster relief and assistance available to other industries, including fishermen and farmers, when natural disasters strike. Under the Loggers Economic Assistance and Relief Act, a disaster declaration from the president or governor would unlock federal assistance eligibility for logging businesses with at least a 10 percent loss in revenue or volume compared to the prior year. Covered damage would include high winds, fire, flooding, insect infestation and drought. “There must be a safety net to ensure one particularly bad season cannot uproot logging families and communities” Golden said. 

Tony Evers

MADISON — Governor Tony Evers sent a letter to US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and the Trump Administration urging immediate action to reverse the administration’s misguided cuts to key investments and staff at the USDA that will negatively impact Wisconsin’s forestry industry. The letter is the second in recent months that Gov. Evers has sent to the Trump Administration. …Gov. Evers strongly opposed reported reductions in US Forest Service programs that support states in order to cover the costs of purging USDA of its expert workforce. The letter comes after Wisconsin officials were recently warned by USFS officials to expect less funding from the Urban and Community Forestry grant program. …The move represents a twofold blow for states like Wisconsin that depend heavily on forests for economic success.

Behind David Milarch’s desk in a large warehouse in rural Michigan grows the future of climate change solutions. Thousands of sequoias, coastal redwoods, oaks and a hundred other tree species form the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive (AATA), a living library of the world’s mightiest trees. These are not just any saplings — they all are descendants of so-called champion trees. …At 75, David Milarch is trying to save the world’s last old-growth forests from extinction — by using their DNA to help reverse climate change. …Cloning these giants is challenging. It involves scaling the trees to the high points where the newest growth sprouts, snipping off the most vital tips, and then coaxing them to root in a mix of soil and specialized hormones. While arborists believed it was impossible to clone redwoods older than 80 years because of their diminished vitality, Milarch proved them wrong.

WYOMING — The future of roadless areas in the Bighorn National Forest and other national forest system lands is uncertain after the Trump administration announced that it would rescind the 2001 roadless rule. …Of the Bighorn National Forest’s 1.1 million acres, 600,000 acres are managed as inventoried roadless areas. In these areas, road construction and reconstruction and timber harvesting are prohibited. Rollins’ action will require environmental analysis, compliance with the Endangered Species Act, tribal consultation and coordination with affected states, according to the U.S. Forest Service. So, at this point, how the proposal will impact forest management is uncertain. …Bighorn National Forest Supervisor Andrew Johnson said he planned to seek a technical correction to the forest’s roadless boundaries from Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz. Johnson said that roughly 50% of the forest’s suitable timber base is located in areas designated as roadless.

©Kansas Forest Service

The money lets Kansas train more than 1,500 firefighters per year across the state and helps get trucks, generators and hand-tools for rural fire departments. Most of the Kansas Forest Service’s budget for this fiscal year might simply not show up. That’s the fear — with just 2.5 months left in the federal fiscal year — as the Trump administration continues to withhold federal money that states and tribal governments use for forestry and for preventing and combating wildfires. “One of the main things we do with this funding is provide training, response resources, response assistance” for wildfires, State Forester Jason Hartman said. …Rural departments are the vital, frontline responders when it comes to the kind of fires that the Kansas Forest Service focuses on preventing and combating — wildfires that sweep across the state’s prairies and woodlands. …Kansas sees about 4,000 wildfires each year.

For a few years, foragers and fungi enthusiasts around the Midwest have been seeing something yellow. The butter-colored flushes of the golden oyster mushroom are difficult to miss. They bloom on dead or decaying trees, and they have become profuse in states around the Great Lakes. The fungi, which are native to Asia, are good to eat and easy to grow. But a new study shows that they may also be sapping the resources of native mushrooms. And their footprint is spreading fast. “I don’t think anyone would hesitate to call it invasive,” said Aishwarya Veerabahu, a mycologist and doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an author of the study, published Wednesday in the journal Current Biology. She and her colleagues call the golden oyster “a literal and figurative bright yellow warning” in the study, adding that “as of now, there are no management strategies available to control its spread.” [a paid subscription is required to read the full article]

On a day in early June, state forester Will Phifer carried a pill bottle-orange canister into a southeastern Oklahoma forest, tied it to a shaded tree trunk and left. The area was a confirmed spot for a growing population of tree-killing beetles called emerald ash borers, which likely seeped into the state from the east. The container held what scientists hope is a solution to controlling the harmful pest: more than 100 minuscule parasitoid wasp eggs. “These emerald ash borer eggs are laid on the outer bark of the tree,” Dieter Rudolph, forest health specialist for Oklahoma Forestry Services, said. “So, this wasp will go find them and basically inject an egg into the emerald ash borer egg.” Instead of producing an emerald ash borer larva, the host egg will hatch a new wasp.

ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana — Wildfires and drought destroyed over 60,000 acres of trees in the summer and fall months of 2023 and costing the state $71 million in timber loss. …The wildfires came from record-breaking high temperatures and little to no measurable rainfall that summer. Now, as Louisiana continues to revive its timber industry, there is a renewed interest in the Virginia pine trees that are across the state. But that is also being facilitated by the potential for tariffs on Canadian and Chinese wood and wood products. “The issue has been of Canada and China flooding our markets with their products,” Dr. Mike Strain, the commissioner of Louisiana’s Department of Agriculture and Forestry said. “So, all of that together, I think we’re going to see a strengthening in the timber industry.” …Strengthening the timber industry also calls for more paper mills. “We really need a mill in the Florida parishes,” he said.