The state of the nation's forests assessed in new report
The 18th annual national Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) report summarizes status and trends of forest conditions across the United States.
Insects, diseases, droughts and wildfire threaten U.S. forests. Each year, the USDA Forest Service assesses threats facing the nation’s forests. Forest managers, scientists and decision-makers rely on these annual reports published by the Southern Research Station. Scientists from across the Forest Service as well as university researchers, state partners, and other experts contributed to the 2018 Forest Health Monitoring report, which is the only national summary of forest health undertaken on an annual basis. The report summarizes the status and trends of a variety of forest health indicators from across the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, and the U.S. Caribbean territories. It also presents new ways to analyze forest health data and longer-term assessments of forest health, and includes summaries of in-depth assessments of forest health concerns at smaller scales. Such consistent, broad-scale and long-term monitoring is necessary to identify places where forests may be deteriorating as a result of any of the numerous threats facing them.
Pictured: Mortality of Fraser fir caused by balsam woolly adelgid. Photo by Kevin Potter.
Related publications:
Research Partners: Tom Eager, USDA Forest Service State and Private Forestry.
External Partners/Collaborators: Mark Ambrose, North Carolina State University.
Contact: Kevin Potter, Collaborating North Carolina State University scientists, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center, kevin.potter@usda.gov.
