Forest Health Monitoring: National Status, Trends, and Analysis 2024
| Authors: | Karun Pandit, Simone Lim-Hing |
| Year: | 2026 |
| Type: | General Technical Report |
| Station: | Washington Office |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.2737/WO-GTR-109 |
| Source: | USDA Forest Service |
Abstract
The Forest Health Monitoring program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service produces an annual national report, which presents recent forest health status and trends from a national or multistate regional perspective and introduces new techniques to analyze forest health condition. This 24th edition of the annual report presents mapping techniques applied to investigate 2023–2024 pine mortality events in Mississippi and Louisiana based on satellite data and the national Insect and Disease Survey. A review of declines in whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) and limber pine (P. flexilis) is discussed based on available literature. The Forest Inventory and Analysis program’s Nationwide Forest Inventory data are used to explore recent trends in American beech (Fagus grandifolia) demography and to compare the change in demographic variables compared to other trees in the forests. Satellite data are employed to quantify fire occurrences in 2023 in a geographical context across the conterminous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Caribbean territories and in a temporal context against two decades of previously collected data.