Welcome to the Forest Health Protection (FHP) Geospatial Portal for the continental United States. The Geospatial Portal provides easy access to a wide range of forest health data. These data include information collected from insect and disease aerial detection surveys and national risk maps of forest mortality.

To view data, please select a map module at the left. For more detailed regional data or information about Alaska, please select a region above. Note that these modules are under construction and may change frequently.

Aerial Survey: Conducting aerial detection surveys is an efficient and economical method of collecting and reporting data on forest insects, diseases, and other disturbances. Aerial sketchmapping is the primary data collection method. Data are collected by aerial observers from the Forest Service and other cooperating State and Federal agencies. Areas of damage are captured as polygons using hardcopy 1:100,000 scale maps or a Digital Aerial Sketchmapping System (D-ASM). The D-ASM uses a moving map display, GPS, and touch screen technology to create a digital version of the data on-the-fly in the aircraft. Regardless of the method, it is important to note that sketchmapping is a valuable but subjective endeavor with inherent spatial and attribute inaccuracies.

Polygons are coded to identify the damage agent, damage type, and a number of other attributes. For instance, reporting the number of dead trees or dead trees per acre is required for areas with mortality. In large areas where mortality is widely scattered, other attributes may be used to capture the pattern of damage, but are not required. Any damage type within a polygon may be continuous or discontinuous therefore any acres reported here are acres with damage.

Risk Map:  The primary goal of the National Insect and Disease Risk Map (NIDRM) is to provide Congress, USDA officials, and federal and state land managers with a periodic strategic assessment of risk of tree mortality due to major insects and diseases. The definition of risk is as follows: The expectation that 25% or more of the standing live volume of trees greater than 1” in diameter will die over the next 15 years, including background mortality.

NIDRM is more than “just a map”, it represents a compendium of nearly 190 individual risk models, all constructed within a common GIS-based multi-criteria framework that can account for regional variations in forest health concerns. The 2006 risk map process, utilized within 49 states1, provides a consistent, repeatable, transparent process through which interactive spatial and temporal risk assessments can be conducted at various levels to aid in decision making. This new modeling process will enhance the utilization and maintenance of forest health risk maps within and outside the National Forest System and will enable the Forest Service to produce near “real-time” risk assessments.

The production of the 2006 risk map has been a highly collaborative process led by the Forest Health Monitoring Program of the Forest Health Protection Unit (FHP) of the USDA Forest Service. Entomologists and pathologists from all states and every FHP Region were invited to take part in the process of developing the risk map.

As a strategic product, the 2006 risk map is not intended to predict local insect and disease outbreaks. It is intended to provide a broad overview of forest risk across the entire nation using a well documented and completely transparent process. The map is constructed at a 1 kilometer spatial resolution and may be updated as new data and/or models become available. A final version of the 2006 risk map and a report will be available during the third or fourth quarter of 2006.