Scientists with the Northern Research Station partnered with Purdue University to update the Forest Service’s Alien Forest Pest Explorer, creating a user-friendly dashboard that combines information from multiple sources to show the impact of different forest insects and diseases, and the potential for further damage. The Alien Forest Pest Explorer delivers science-based interactive data visualization tools that allow users to track the ranges of invasive forest pests, quantify trends in host tree species abundance, and compute increases in mortality caused by insect and disease invasions across the United States.

Collaboration between Northern Research Station scientists and Purdue University researchers and designers produced a significant upgrade to the Alien Forest Pest Explorer (AFPE), which was originally designed to allow people to research known invasive insects on a county-level basis. The new version of the AFPE combines data from more sources, including the Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, to offer maps of pest species distributions; the growth, mortality, and removal rates of host species; trends in host abundance; and information about the pests. The annually updated data has resolution to the county level. Pest and disease prevention begins in people’s backyards, and the redesigned AFPE serves everyone, not just professionals. To date, the AFPE database includes the geographic distributions of 74 species of forest insects and 15 species of forest pathogens. In addition, the AFPE web tool integrates pest distribution data for 16 of the most damaging pests with forest inventory data from FIA to highlight the status and trends in the health of host resources. This online tool allows users to customize host data retrievals across multiple scales to aid in addressing forest health management and research goals.