Research Centers

In addition to Research Stations whose work is typically organized along regional or geographic boundaries, Forest Service Research & Development hosts multiple Centers, Groups, and Networks. These focus on thematic, multi-regional, or national-scale natural resources needs, opportunities, and challenges. These are summarized below.

• The Climate Change Resource Center (CCRC) is a web-based, national platform that connects land managers and decision makers with useable science to address climate change in natural resources planning and management. The CCRC provides information about climate change impacts on forests and other ecosystems, and approaches to adaptation and mitigation in forests and grasslands.
• The Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center (EFETAC) is based in the Southern Research Station but has broad regional and multi-agency relevance.  EFETAC works to predict, detect, assess, and deliver knowledge regarding threats to public and private forests of the east, including forest pests, weather and climate change, wildland fire, and changes in land use or land cover.
• The Fire Lab (a.k.a. Fire Sciences Laboratory) is the home of the Fire, Fuel, and Smoke Science Program at the Rocky Mountain Research Station. Located in Missoula, Montana, it is a premiere international research center working to improve the understanding of wildland fire and increase the safety and effectiveness of fire, fuel, and smoke management.

• The National Agroforestry Center (NAC) seeks to advance the health, diversity, and productivity of working lands, waters, and communities through agroforestry.  Agroforestry — the intentional integration of agriculture and forestry — can provide crops while restoring and enhancing ecosystem services.

• The Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS) develops synthesis products, fosters communication, and pursues science in climate change and carbon cycling and management.  NIACS has been designed as a collaborative effort among the Forest Service, universities, conservation organizations, and forest industry to provide information on managing forests for climate change adaptation and enhanced carbon sequestration.
• The Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center (WWETAC) is based in the Pacific Northwest Research Station but has broad regional and multi-agency relevance. WWETAC works to predict, detect, assess, and deliver knowledge regarding threats to western wildlands, including forest pests, weather and climate change, wildland fire, and changes in land use or land cover.