Current Status of Forest Health Policy in the United States

Abstract

ederal policies related to forestry and forest health (specifically, insects and diseases) have the potential to affect management practices, terms of international and interstate trade, and long-term sustainability and conservation. Our objectives were to review existing federal policies, the role of federal agencies in managing forest health, and guidance for future policy efforts. Since the 1940s, various federal policies relevant to forest health have been established, and several US Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies have been empowered to assist with prevention, quarantine, detection, management, and control of insects and diseases. Overall, our review showed that relatively few national policies directly address forest health as a stand-alone objective, as most of them are embedded within forestry bills. Federal funding for forest health issues and the number of personnel dedicated to such issues have declined dramatically for some agencies. Concomitantly, native species continue to gain pestiferous status while non-native species continue to establish and cause impacts in the US. To enhance our ability and capacity to deal with current and future threats, concerted efforts are needed to advocate for both resources and stand-alone policy tools that take seriously the complexity of emerging sustainability challenges in both private and public forestlands.

The Global Forest Health Crisis: A Public Good Social Dilemma in Need of International Collective Action

“…2). Ultimately, it will be imperative to elevate forest health to a more prominent position in national and international political, societal, and scientific discourse (77). In addition to public engagement through collaborating NGOs, concerted effort will be required among the lobbying arms of the national and international societies in relevant fields of scholarship to advocate for funding and support (73).…”

Invasive Tree Pests Devastate Ecosystems—A Proposed New Response Framework

“…This is likely due to existing mandates of the primary agencies tasked with managing PIP invasions in the US, which are disproportionately focused on prevention, early detection/rapid response, and management/mitigation (USDA-APHIS), or are stretched to the breaking point by competing urgent issues, such as wildfire (US Forest Service). A steady loss of research capacity is also contributing to this state of affairs (Gandhi et al, 2019). The lack of a single authority with a clear mandate prioritizing long-term response to established PIPs is a major impediment to effective research efforts and management, for example with respect to restoration by way of resistant trees.…”

Denser forests across the USA experience more damage from insects and pathogens

“…Viewing total basal area in relation to cumulative insect and pathogen disturbances across taxa instead of host basal area in relation to specific disturbances can help explain several observations that may, at first, seem counterintuitive. For example, in the USA, federal lands such as national parks or national forests, which tend to be more biodiverse and contain more contiguous and mature forest, may experience more frequent or severe disturbances from insects and pathogens than surrounding forested landscapes that are mostly privately owned, more fragmented, less biodiverse, more intensively managed, and where trees are younger on average 15 , 24 , 25 . Although structural and tree species diversity tends to make forests resistant to such disturbances 26 – 28 , at least those caused by native insects or pathogens, this “associational” resistance may be counteracted by high basal area conditions 29 .…”