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The Florida Python Challenge® (August 9-18, 2024) is an exciting conservation effort which helps protect the rare Everglades habitat and the animals that live there from these invasive, nonnative snakes.
See also: Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez Announces Registration Is Open for the 2024 Florida Python Challenge (May 30, 2024)

Researchers have published a first- of-its-kind study that shows that near-infrared (NIR) spectrum cameras can help python hunters more effectively track down these invasive snakes, especially at night.

ARS vaccine helps to defend rare bird from avian influenza. Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) recently joined other federal agencies to take emergency action to protect one of America’s endangered species, the California condor.

ARS Science Leads Way in Screening at the Molecular Level. Fungal pathogens represent a large and economically significant challenge to crops worldwide. The challenge is so great, in fact, diseases caused by fungal pathogens can cause crop losses of 10-20% (worth $100-$200 billion) each year. Historically, a variety of biological, chemical, and mechanical methods have been used to fight fungal diseases, Lately, though, researchers have focused on molecular methods to develop disease-resistant crops, which would reduce the need for, and damage caused by, chemical fungicides.

A new approach to tackling the spotted-wing drosophila involves manipulating the behavior of these insects. The spotted-wing drosophila is an invasive pest of fruits that infests ripe, ready-to-eat fruit. The pest poses a significant threat to farmers because it is very difficult to control with standard pesticides. ARS scientists have devised a solution involves manipulating the behavior of these insects by disguising healthy fruit as being infected with an unappealing pathogen.

This Story from NAL's Collection invites readers to appreciate the complex history of foot-and-mouth disease and the relationship between the United States and Mexico. It briefly chronicles the 1946-1954 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Mexico and how the United States and Mexican governments worked together to eradicate the disease.

The FHAAST biological control program (FHAAST-BC) is part of the broader Forest Service's National Strategic Framework for Invasive Species Management as well as regional plans dealing with invasive species. The focus of the FHAAST-BC is to demonstrate a strong leadership role in the development and implementation of biological control technologies to manage wide spread infestations of invasive species and to use biological control as a viable component for integrated invasive pest management efforts.

The Forest Health Assessment & Applied Sciences Team (FHAAST) produces publications, reports, and posters that address forest health-related disturbances. Topics include forest insects and diseases, native and invasive species, biological control, biopesticides, aerial survey, forest disturbance detection and risk assessment.

Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) is a national program designed to determine the status, changes, and trends in indicators of forest condition on an annual basis. The FHM program uses data from ground plots and surveys, aerial surveys, and other biotic and abiotic data sources and develops analytical approaches to address forest health issues that affect the sustainability of forest ecosystems.

Treesearch is an online system for sharing free, full text publications by Research and Development scientists in the USDA Forest Service. Included in Treesearch are scholarly works authored by the agency’s scientists and published by journals, in conference proceedings, or in books. Treesearch also offers scholarly works published by the agency which may or may not have been authored by agency researchers.

Once common across eastern North America, the American elm is deeply ingrained in our nation's history. However, a large portion of the tree population was affected by Dutch Elm Disease beginning in the 1930s. Today, short-lived elms can still be found in forests, but because they tend to be much smaller, they no longer play such an important ecological role. A multifaceted collaborative effort is underway to restore the stately and once dominant American elm to persist on the landscape of the nation's forests.

From the forefront of forest research, the Northern Research Station invites you inside the largest forest research organization in the world — the USDA's Forest Service. In each podcast episode, you’ll hear stories, interviews, and special in-depth anthologies of the science that's studying, questioning, and solving some of today's most compelling forest issues.

Non-native invasive insects and pathogens are causing significant ecological damage to forests worldwide.  The first season explores biological invasions — and their repercussions — in the Midwest and the Northeast. The second season examines tree breeding and selection to promote resistance to invasive insects and diseases.

ForWarn is a satellite-based forest disturbance monitoring system for the conterminous United States. It delivers new forest change products every eight days and provides tools for attributing abnormalities to insects, disease, wildfire, storms, human development or unusual weather. Archived data provide disturbance tracking across all lands since 2000.

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