In New Hampshire, where forests’ direct impact on the economy is $2.26 billion each year, UNH researchers have launched a multiyear project to investigate the effects of drought on Northeast forests. Such drought experiments are rare, explains associate professor Heidi Asbjornsen, adding, “I think it’s a really important question to be asking now, because we are seeing more extreme climate events occurring. I think that there’s a lot we don’t understand about how our tree species in New England will respond to these droughts, so we’ll start to get an answer to some of these questions during the coming years.”