Forest health monitoring: National status, trends, and analysis 2012

Abstract

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. 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. Relationships are assessed between macrolichen species richness and forest density, forest connectivity, and land cover. Macrolichen data are also used to investigate the effects of precipitation on indices used to develop nitrogen critical loads. Nine recently completed Evaluation Monitoring projects are summarized, addressing forest health concerns at smaller scales.

Titles contained within Forest health monitoring: National status, trends, and analysis 2012

• Chapter 1 - Introduction
• Chapter 2 - Large-scale patterns of insect and disease activity in the conterminous United States and Alaska from the National Insect and Disease Survey, 2011
• Chapter 3 - Large-scale patterns of forest fire occurrence in the conterminous United States and Alaska, 2011.
• Chapter4 - Drought patterns in the conterminous United States and Hawaii.
• Chapter 5 - Tree Mortality
• Chapter 6 - Links between land cover and lichen species richness at large scales in forested ecosystems across the United States.
• Chapter 7 - Climate effects on lichen indicators for nitrogen
• Chapter 8 - Effects of prescribed fire on upland oak forest ecosystems in Missouri Ozarks (Project NC-F-06-02)
• Chapter 9 - Assessment and etiology of hickory (Carya spp.) decline in the midwest and northeastern regions (Project NC-EM-07-01)
• Chapter 10 - The roles of fire, overstory thinning, and understory seeding for the restoration of Iowa Oak Savannas (Project NC-F-07-1)
• Chapter 11 - Progression of Laurel Wilt Disease in Georgia: 2009–11 (Project SC-EM-08-02)
• Chapter 13 - Searching high and low: Patterns of White Ash health across topographic gradients in the Allegheny region (Project NE-EM-09-02)
• Chapter 14 - Use of Forest Inventory Data to Document Patterns of Yellow-Cedar Occurrence, Mortality, and Regeneration in the Context of Climate (Project WC-EM-09-02)
• Chapter 15 - Thousand Cankers Disease in Tennessee: For how long? (Project SO-EM-B-11-01)
• Chapter 16 - Impacts of Swiss needle cast in the Cascade mountains of northern Oregon: Monitoring of permanent plots after 10 years (Project WC-EM-B-11-01)

Keywords

Drought, fire, forest health, forest insects and disease, lichens, tree mortality

Citation

Potter, Kevin M.; Conkling, Barbara L. 2014., eds. Forest health monitoring: National status, trends, and analysis 2012. General Technical Report SRS-198. Asheville, NC: USDA-Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 192 p.