Understory

An emerging fungal disease is threatening one of the State of Hawaii's most important tree species. This fact sheet summarizes the importance of the ohi'a tree, describes Rapid Ohi'a Death (ROD) and the ways it spreads, and highlights ongoing research into effective methods to slow the spread of ROD.

This drought status update is produced using the most recent data and cover a seasonal range of outlooks, including current conditions, seasonal drought outlooks, and severe fire potential. It is broken down by Forest Service region. The update covers conditions for June 2026, and projections through August, 2026.

A Climate Resilience Guide for Urban Forestsin the Northwestexplains the potential effects of climate change on Northwest urban forests and discuss strategies thaturbanplanners,foresters,and arborists can implement to ensure the long-term sustainability of community tree canopies.AninteractiveExcelspreadsheetoftree species and cultivarscommonly available for urban plantings inIdaho, Oregon, and Washington is also available to accompany the Urban Forest Guide.This database canbe usedto help evaluate thesuitabilityofdifferent speciesfor a given region within the three statesbased oncharacteristi...

People and ecosystems throughout the West depend on snowmelt to replenish groundwater, waterways, and soil moisture. Snow droughts occurs when snowpack is abnormally low, relative to the time of year and location. This type of drought can have significant economic and ecological effects. This fact sheet, part of the Drought in the West fact sheet series, explains the two types of snow drought, gives more details about their effects, and offers additional resources.

Northwest forests are home to many species of native insects that live in and feed on trees. These insects thin old, stressed, or sick trees and diversify forest structure. Under certain conditions, forest insects can also cause significant tree mortality when their populations expand in an outbreak. This fact sheet summarizes the conditions that effect insect outbreaks, highlights two prominent species, and presents some general considerations for managing insect outbreaks.This sheet was produced as a partnership between the Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center and the USDA...

The Forest Service has three primary mechanisms for gathering data about forest conditions and health at the landscape scale: Aerial detection surveys, the plot-based inventories, and satellite remote sensing analysis. This fact sheet summarizes these three data sources, and introduces an ongoing project to integrate multiple data sources in order to take advantage of their unique strengths.

As part of the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, the Forest Service and its partners are using silviculture and prescribed fire to restore historical forest structure and composition in the northern Blue Mountains of Oregon and Washington within the Wallowa-Whitman and Umatilla National Forests. To monitor restoration effects, this project combines noninvasive methods (trail cameras and audio recording units) with traditional wildlife sampling techniques (nest checks and telemetry) to measure wildlife responses to forest restoration treatments. These data provide landscape-sc...

The Oregon Postfire Research and Monitoring Collaborative is an interagency group that facilitates shared stewardship by increasing awareness of efforts by various natural resources agencies and organizations to assess and learn from wildfires. It formed in response to the September 2020 Labor Day fires that burned 1.2 million acres in Oregon.Our members span Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments, universities, and the private sector. The collaborative’s structure includes a leadership team and a science team.

Drought affects resources and services provided by national forests and grasslands in the Western United States. This fact sheet summarizes potential management actions to reduce negative effects of drought on major resource areas, developed through science-management workshops. It also provides additional resources to learn more about drought and drought management.

This regular drought status update for the United States is produced using the most recent data and covers a range of outlooks, including current drought conditions, seasonal drought outlook, and severe fire potential. It is organized by Forest Service region. This update covers conditions for April 2026 through June 2026.