Forest health monitoring: national status, trends, and analysis 2018

The annual national report of the Forest Health Monitoring Program of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, presents forest health status and trends from a national or multi-State regional perspective using a variety of sources, introduces new techniques for analyzing forest health data, and summarizes results of recently completed Evaluation Monitoring projects funded through the national Forest Health Monitoring Program. In this 10th edition in the annual series of national reports, survey data are used to identify geographic patterns of insect and disease activity. Satellite data are employed to detect geographic clusters of forest fire occurrence. Data collected by the Forest Inventory and Analysis Program of the Forest Service are employed to detect regional differences in tree mortality. Established forest fragmentation assessment protocols are used to characterize and compare the fragmentation of landcover types nationally. A new methodology for the comparison of moisture conditions among different geographical areas and time periods is described. Forest Inventory and Analysis data are used to conduct an empirical assessment of the Nation’s standing dead tree resources. The potential impacts of climate change on forest soil critical acid load limits are explored. Seven recently completed Evaluation Monitoring projects are summarized, addressing forest health concerns at smaller scales.

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