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For 21 consecutive years, researchers from the USDA Forest Service and partners at North Carolina State University have tracked the status and trends of forest health across the U.S. Annual assessments of forest health are key to understanding whether year-to-year changes are part of longer-term trends. Forests constantly change because of tree mortality and growth, weather events and climate trends, and disturbances from stressors including fire, insects, and diseases.
About 82% of the U.S. population lives in urban areas, and that number is growing. “Frequent travel to and from cities means that trees in urban areas have high rates of exposure to invasive species like the emerald ash borer,” says Frank Koch, a USDA Forest Service research ecologist and co-author of a study in the Journal of Applied Ecology about the impacts of invasive insects on urban trees.