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### Ecology Units & Teams Wildlife Ecology Uni t Fish & Aquatic Ecology Uni t Stream Systems Technology Cente r Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air & Rare Plants

Program Leaders: Ann Acheson - Air Program Leader 'Air' includes the areas of air quality and meteorology.

The Air Resources program assists field specialists in attaining the Chief's air priorities and manage resources from a healthy ecosystem perspective. 

## Air Quality

The Forest Service monitors the effects of air pollution that may impair visibility, harm human health, injure trees and other plants, acidify or cause unnatural fertilization of streams and lakes, leach nutrients from soils , and degrade cultural resources, like archeological sites and historical buildings. Forest activities that can affect air quality such as prescribed burning, ski areas, and mining are also monitored to ensure compliance with air regulations for human health and to monitor possible impacts to natural resources. For more information about the Forest Service and its role in protecting air quality, visit Air Resource Management at www.fs.fed.us/air

. Air Quality Images

Fire Wise



## News

Western Lakes Monitoring Workshop

Results of the Western Lakes Monitoring workshop maybe of interest if you have anything to do with soils, water, or fish especially in some of our wilderness areas.

As articulated in the summary document:

"The Air Resource Management Program of the USDA Forest Service held a workshop to address issues associated with air pollution impacts to sensitive waters in the western United States. The meeting participants included Forest Service air resource managers, hydrologists, researchers, contractors, academics, and representatives from other governmental agencies (e.g., NPS, USGS, and EPA). The objectives of the 

### Page 1 of 3 Air - WFW - Watershe d, Fish, Wildlife, Air & Rare Plants - USDA Forest Service

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...workshop were to:

z Assess our existing program to monitor lakes for adverse effects of atmospheric deposition

z Understand complementary efforts by other agencies and other programs within the FS

z Understand emerging threats including climate change, nutrient enrichment, and toxics

z Provide guidance on study design, parameters to monitor, and trends analysis

z Determine our future role"

Summary Document (2 pages; 141 KB)

Presentations

- Full


## Smoke & Dust

This page features web site links that track smoke from wildfires and dust events. Some require browser plugins to run animations.

General Sites for Disaster Information:

N OAA Disaster Information Serve r A site for all sorts of disaster information. Try out the special coverage and the 8 types of disasters.

Center for Air Pollution Impact and Trend Analysis Report and analysis of the dust and fire events. The Asia - FarEast and Central-America domains are good.

University of Wisconsin site for GOES pictures This site has pictures of Asian dust, also Florida Fires and Mexican Fires with analysis.

Other sites that are tracking smoke from the Florida fires:

N OAA Trajectories and Smoke Plume Forecasts Provides projections of ground level con centrations and forecasts of smoke plumes. You can also get the NIFC Incident Management Report from here.

N OAA GOES Satellite Coverage of Florida fires Check out the media advisory summary for other web sites. There are also loops of satellite pictures.

N ASA Global Fire Monitoring Site NASA Goddard site with access to different fire episodes (nice site, needs animation plugin for some pages). Check out the global vegetation fires from 1992 and 1993.

Asian Dust Event Sites (April 1998): 

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...N ASA Animation of China Dus t NASA site with animation of dust moving over the Pacific Ocean and into California and N evada.

Disclaimers | Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) | Privacy Notice

Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air & Rare Plants (WFW) Washington, D.C. Office Author: Shelly Witt, National Continuing Education Coordinator, WFW staff Email: switt01@fs.fed.us

Phone: 435-881-4203 Publish_date:1/20/99 Expires: none

Photo Credits

USDA Forest Service P.O. Box 96090 Washington, D.C. 20090-6090 (202) 205-8333 

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