Monitoring and Assessment of Forest Health

How are the nation’s forests doing? The answer to that question is more important than ever in the face of multiple invasive pests which are adding to traditional disturbances of fire, wind, and timber harvest.. Northern Research Station researchers are developing tools to provide more reliable and more consistent answers to questions about forest conditions and the effects of management practices, pests, and changing climate. We are developing techniques to monitor forest ecosystems more closely using scientifically credible methods. We are tracking forest conditions in the Northeast and Midwest through the nationally consistent Forest Inventory and Analysis program. These tools will help federal, state, tribal, and private land managers collect and analyze data that assists their efforts to ensure the sustainability of forests.

Selected Research Studies

Effects of Insect Defoliation on Regional Carbon Dynamics of Forests
On an annual basis, insects severely defoliate more than 20 million acres of forested land in the conterminous United States, affecting a larger area and incurring higher economic costs than any other disturbance.  However, the long-term costs and ecosystem consequences of insect outbreaks on forest health and productivity are difficult to quantify at the regional scale because of the variety of pests involved, differences in forest types affected, and varying spatial scale and intensity of the impacts.  In particular, the effect of insect activity on carbon cycling and sequestration at the annual and decadal scale is poorly characterized.  

Effects of forest composition on Northern Goshawk nest occurrence and productivity
The Northern Goshawk is a forest raptor found at low densities throughout northern hardwood forests of the Great Lakes region, and is a species of management concern for the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest (CNNF), Wisconsin.  The species has a circumboreal distribution and appears to be quite flexible in its nesting requirements and prey base, which limits the applicability of literature on nesting and foraging requirements from outside of the Great Lakes region.  Therefore, there is a need for local information on these aspects of Northern Goshawk biology to inform land managers of the most effective means to conserve the species. 

Chequamegon Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (CHEAS)
As part of the cooperative Chequamegon Ecosystem Atmosphere Study (ChEAS), NRS scientists have been studying the energy, water vapor and CO₂ exchange between forest ecosystems and the atmosphere to understand the dynamics of forest productivity.

Northern Forest Monitoring
The NRS Northern Forest Monitoring Program develops leading edge forest ecosystem monitoring methods and tools to help FIA and other organizations monitor forests, resulting in compatible results across the landscape.

Forest Inventory & Analysis
Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) collects, analyzes, and reports information on the status and trends of America's forests: how much forest exists, where it exists, who owns it, and how it is changing.