Forest Health Monitoring

The Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) program is a cooperative, multi-agency, national effort to monitor, assess, and report on the long-term status, changes, and trends in forest ecosystem health in the United States. Cooperators conducting Wisconsin's program since 1994 include the USDA Forest Service - North Central Forest Experiment Station (Exit DNR) and State & Private Forestry (Exit DNR); The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources - Division of Forestry and Bureau of Air Management; and the Lumberjack Resource Conservation and Development, a not-for-profit agency. A network of permanent plots, distributed across the entire U.S., serves to provide base line and current forest health conditions and to detect changes and trends over time. There are a total of 93 forested plots in Wisconsin.

Data collected on the plots each year include the following:

• Tree-crown diameter
• Tree-crown ratio
• Foliage density
• Tree-crown dieback
• Foliage transparency
• Damage-causing agents (cankers, fungi, open wounds, resinosis, dead tops/loss of apical dominance, broken limbs, branches and roots, brooms, damaged or discolored foliage.
• Evidence of air pollution injury (ozone in particular)
• Lichen frequency and diversity
• Soil chemistry

Forest Health Protection