Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center

U.S. Forest Service - Southern Research Station - Asheville, North Carolina

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Welcome to the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center!

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What's New

EFETAC made progress in a variety of research, science delivery, and partnership efforts during 2011. Read highlights here.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) used EFETAC's Water Supply Stress Index model to study impacts of power plants on US water supplies. Learn more about the UCS research here.

UCS report.png

Conservation Magazine features highlights of a recently published forest fragmentation study led by EFETAC research ecologist Kurt Riitters. Read the Conservation Magazine article here.

The Template for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Management Options (TACCIMO) now contains 1,000 effects of climate change. New features and expanded content are available here.

EFETAC scientists and cooperators produce annual Forest Health Monitoring national reports. Draft versions of recent reports are now available.

EFETAC scientists are contributing chapters on ecological and economic vulnerability and risk, water quality and quantity, and invasive species to the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Management Options (CCAMMO) project. Click here to learn more.

EFETAC is headquartered with the Southern Research Station in Asheville, NC. Eastern forests are vulnerable to stresses from insects and disease, wildland loss, invasive species, uncharacteristic fire, and climate change. As new threats emerge and old threats resurface, the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center (EFETAC) is an interdisciplinary resource that is actively developing new technology and tools to anticipate and respond to emerging eastern forest threats. Center researchers work with other scientists nationally as well as with a variety of Federal, State, and local government agencies, universities, and non-governmental partners to address these threats. More...

Message from the Director...
Dr. Danny C. Lee

Dr. Danny C. Lee, EFETAC Director Welcome to the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center’s Web site – a resource for cutting edge research, technology, and tools addressing emerging forest threats. Our site is intended to be a user-friendly, reliable, and timely source of information for anyone interested in environmental threats.

EFETAC is addressing a variety of complex issues that demand cross-disciplinary integration, collaboration, and creativity. Our work complements ongoing efforts within and outside the Forest Service and builds on a wealth of existing information. Our scientists collaborate with an extensive national and international research community and focus on research that is relevant to rural and urban forest threat issues. More...

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Featured Forest Threat

Acid Deposition

Air pollution has been a serious problem for the forests of the Northeast (especially those at high altitudes), which are downwind of the industrial heartland. The chief agent of environmental damage is acid deposition, or acid rain as it is commonly known.

What is acid deposition? This phenomenon occurs when emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) react in the atmosphere with water, oxygen, and oxidants to form various acidic compounds. These compounds then fall to the earth in either dry form (such as gas and particles) or wet form (such as rain, snow, and fog).

Why is acid deposition a concern? Polluted air can damage trees directly in the dry form or indirectly through its effects on the chemistry of water and soils and by making trees more vulnerable to other biological and environmental stressors. More specifically, acid rain weaken trees by damaging their leaves, limiting the nutrients available to them, or exposing them to toxic substances slowly released from the soil. Acid rain that flows into streams, lakes, and marshes also has serious ecological effects. In watersheds where soils do not have a buffering capacity, acid rain releases aluminum--which is highly toxic to many species of aquatic organisms--from soils into lakes and streams.

Source: Northern Research Station

Above: SO₂damage- Photo by USDA Forest Service Region 8 Southern Archive, Bugwood.org

Visit the Forest Threat Summary Viewer for more information about this and other forest threats.