FOREST HEALTH CONCERNS 



Although many of America's forests are healthy, there are forests 

 where long-term forest health is threatened and management 

 objectives may not be met. Of major concern are forests where 

 ecological conditions have been altered resulting in increased 

 susceptibility to drought, pest epidemics, and wildfire. Other 

 important concerns are introduced forest pests and forest pest 

 and wildfire problems in the urban-wildland interface. The 

 forest health concerns used as examples in this plan represent 

 the major concerns that require national emphasis at this time. 

 The forest cover types in the examples that follow are only a few 

 of the cover types in the United States. Eyre (1980) identifies 

 144 forest cover types in the United States, 89 in the East and 55 

 in the West. Forest health problems can vary between and within 

 forest cover types. 



Altered Ecological Conditions 



Forest health problems of greatest immediate concern are in 

 ecosystems where conditions have been most altered over the 

 past several decades by management practices and successful fire 

 control. The most dramatic changes are in the short-inter\'al 

 fire-adapted ecosystems containing mainly long-needled pines. 

 In the West, these are primarily the interior ponderosa pine 

 and western white pine types and in the South the longleaf-slash 

 and loblolly-shortleaf types. Problems also exist in the long- 

 interval fire-adapted ecosystems, for example, the lodgepole pine 

 type in the interior West and the Pacific Douglas-fir type in 

 Oregon and Washington. 



INTERIOR PONDEROSA PINE TiTE 



In the Blue Mountains of Oregon and Washington (and else- 

 where) past harvesting practices, fire control, and lack of thin- 

 ning have favored reproduction and growth of true firs and 

 Douglas-fir — species that are particularly susceptible to drought 

 and pests on these sites (Monnig and Byler 1992, Wickman 

 1992). In the past, periodic low-intensity wildfires kept these 

 species in check while sparing the fire-adapted ponderosa pine 

 and larch (Mutch 1992). Fire control has been highly successful, 

 and harvesting has removed much of the ponderosa pine. The 

 resulting altered ecological conditions have contributed to recent 

 serious forest health problems in the Blue Motnitains as true firs 

 and Douglas-fir are damaged and killed by drought, western 

 spruce budworm, Douglas-fir tussock moth, Douglas-fir beetle. 



Healthy Forests for America 's Future — A Strategic Plan 



