Forest health monitoring: national status, trends, and analysis 2015
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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, introduces new techniques for analyzing forest health data, and summarizes results of recently completed Evaluation Monitoring projects funded through the FHM national program. In this 15th 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 Program are employed to detect regional differences in tree mortality. National Land Cover Database land cover maps are used to summarize temporal trends in forest fragmentation for the conterminous United States from 2001 to 2011. Eleven recently completed Evaluation Monitoring projects are summarized, addressing forest health concerns at smaller scales.