The State of the Nation’s Forests Summarized in Annual Report
The 17th
annual national Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) report summarizes the status and
trends of forest conditions across the United States.
Forests are constantly changing with weather,
disturbance, and conversion to other land uses, but how do we know if
year-to-year changes are just a one-off or part of a larger shift? Annual
summaries of forest health are key to our understanding. Scientists from
across the Forest Service as well as university researchers, state partners,
and many other experts contributed to the 2017 Forest Health Monitoring (FHM)
report, which is the only national summary of forest health undertaken on an
annual basis. The report, led by North Carolina State University scientists who
cooperate with the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center,
includes short- and long-term forest health assessments from the continental United
States, Alaska, and Hawaii. It also summarizes the status and trends of a
variety of forest health indicators. The report shows that there is a lot of
forest land in the United States, and much of it is healthy. At the same time,
fires, insects and diseases, and droughts are impacting forest health in many
places, and some of those forests may be altered permanently.
Pictured: Ash trees attacked by the emerald ash borer show crown dieback. Photo by Bill McNee,Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, courtesy of Bugwood.org.
Related publications:
Forest Service Partners/Collaborators: State and Private Forestry, Forest Inventory and Analysis
External Partners/Collaborators: North Carolina State University, State Foresters
Contact: Kevin Potter, North Carolina State University Cooperating Scientist, kevin.potter@usda.gov;
Barbara Conkling, North Carolina State University Cooperating Scientist, barbara.conkling@usda.gov
