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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 

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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: 

NOAA Disaster Information Server 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: 

NOAA Trajectories and Smoke Plume Forecasts Provides 

projections of ground level concentrations and forecasts of 

smoke plumes. You can also get the NIFC Incident 

Management Report from here. 

NOAA GOES Satellite Coverage of Florida fires Check out the 

media advisory summary for other web sites. There are also 

loops of satellite pictures. 

NASA 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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NASA Animation of China Dust NASA site with animation of 

dust moving over the Pacific Ocean and into California and 

Nevada. 

 

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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