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Northern Research Station

Featured Scientist

In Baltimore, Nancy Falxa Sonti is using old-school techniques in a revolutionary way.

Urban tree monitoring field and measuring guides

Featured Partnership

Collaboration aims to restore an American icon to city boulevards.

US Forest Service Northern Research Station

May Feature - Urban Forests

Wilderness may be more glamorous, but for the 80 percent of the United States population that lives in cities, urban forests are where we find our daily dose of nature. Northern Research Station scientists Dave Nowak and Eric Greenfield estimated that annual benefits derived from U.S. urban forests in terms of air pollution removal, carbon sequestration, and lowered building energy total $18.3 billion.

Managing a resource that contributes these and so many more benefits, including improving our health and our mood, takes science. In May, our web features introduce you to a scientist applying traditional research techniques to urban forests, research that established guidelines for urban tree monitoring, and a partnership that is working to bring elms back to the boulevards of America.

Rooted in Research

Leaving It Messy: Using Tip-up Mounds to Promote Tree Species Diversity

When a tree falls in the woods, should it be removed? In managed forests, common practices call for cleaning up and removing timber following a blowdown. But when Northern Research Station research forester Christel Kern sees the root mass of a fallen tree, she's more likely to see it as an opportunity. Her work is described in a 2019 Forest Ecology and Management article entitled Mounds Facilitate Regeneration of Light-Seeded and Browse-Sensitive Tree Species After Moderate-Severity Wind Disturbance.