Book Description

The Forest Health Monitoring Program's annual national reports present results from forest health data analyses focusing on a national perspective. The Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests are used as a reporting framework. This report has five main sections. The first contains introductory material. The next three sections, S2Landscape Structure, S3 S2Abiotic and Biotic Factors, S3 and S2Forest Conditions, S3 contain results of data analyses. Some of the indicators discussed use data collected from ground plots. These include ozone bioindicator plants; changes in trees (crown condition, mortality, and stand age); and soils (forest floor depth). Other indicators or indicator groups use data about insects and diseases, and remotely sensed or ground-based data about distance to roads, forest edge, interior forest, drought, fire, and air pollution (sulfates, nitrates, and ozone). Identifying patterns and observing possible relationships is an important part of national level analysis and reporting. The fifth section S2Integrated Look at Forest Health IndicatorsS3 presents results of analyses designed to evaluate whether or not individual indicators or linear combinations of indicators discriminate between crowns in poor condition and crowns not in poor condition.