Forest health monitoring: national status, trends, and analysis 2016

Abstract

The annual national report of the Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) 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, introducesnew techniques for analyzing forest health data, and summarizes results of recently completed Evaluation Monitoring projects funded through the FHM national program. In this 16th edition in a series of annual reports, survey data are used to identify geographic patterns of insect and disease activity. Satellite data are employed to detect geographic patterns of forest fire occurrence. Recent drought and moisture surplus conditions are compared across the conterminous United States. Data collected by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program are employed to detect regional differences in tree mortality. Change over time in the understory Vegetation Diversity and Structure Indicator is assessed on more than 500 FIA plots in the North Central and Northeastern States, where remeasured vegetation data are used to assess change over time in plant species diversity, occupancy and constancy. A new Regeneration Indicator, which includes a suite of tree-seedling and browse impact measurements, is described. The general magnitude of tree mortality predicted by the National Insect and Disease Risk Map is compared to FIA estimates of mortality. Six recently completed Evaluation Monitoring projects are summarized, addressingforest health concerns at smaller scales.