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PPQ conducts weed risk assessments (WRA) as part of its process for safeguarding U.S. agriculture and natural resources from weeds and invasive plants. A weed risk assessment is a science-based evaluation of the potential of a plant species to establish, spread, and cause harm in the United States. PPQ may initiate an assessment for any number of reasons, including: evaluation of commodity import requests, detection of a new weed in the United States, and petitions for listing from stakeholders.

NRCS offers technical and financial assistance to help farmers, ranchers and forest managers.

Provides overview of former project to protect and conserve communities of the Delmarva Peninsula (Chesapeake Bay region).

Our scientists are developing strategies and methods to manage the brown treesnake and protect endangered species and other wildlife, improve public health, and protect power stations and other sensitive locations from intrusion.

Oak wilt is complex, with a high degree of variability in distribution, severity, and associated management options. This publication provides a detailed overview of oak wilt and is intended to help natural resource managers in the Northeast and Midwest choose the most appropriate tools for a given situation. Using the Story Map format, information has been organized into selectable sections/tabs for easy navigation and exploration.

Bees are declining in the U.S. and with them the pollination services on which people and wildlife depend. Several national forests have begun to include habitat restoration for bees in their forest plans. Justin Runyon, a Rocky Mountain Research Station research entomologist, and Montana State University scientists identified the most pollinator-friendly plants to include in seed mixes for use in restoration projects in the Northern Rockies.

The researchers developed a scorecard that managers can use to select pollinator-friendly mixes based on local factors such as budget, habitat type, or plant availability.

See also: Ecological Risk Screening Summaries for more species summaries

The Partners Program provides technical and financial assistance to private landowners and Tribes who are willing to work with us and other partners on a voluntary basis to help meet the habitat needs of our Federal Trust Species.

As climate change reduces the frequency and intensity of killing freezes, tropical plants and animals that once could survive in only a few parts of the U.S. mainland are expanding their ranges northward, a new U.S. Geological Survey-led study has found. The change is likely to result in some temperate zone plant and animal communities found today across the southern U.S. being replaced by tropical communities. These changes will have complex economic, ecological and human health consequences, the study predicts. Some effects are potentially beneficial, such as expanding winter habitat for cold-sensitive manatees and sea turtles; others pose problems, such as the spread of insect-borne human diseases and destructive invasive species.

ARS researchers created a new tool, called Pathogen and Tree Fruit Health Map (PATHMAP), which will connect growers in different states and allow them to share important data regarding tree fruit diseases, disorders, and insect pests. This online interactive tool will enable growers to modify and adjust their pathogen and pest control programs based on real-time data, provide quick access to time-sensitive data, give them access to experts in the field, and provide access to previous years observations and track current diseases, disorders and pests.
See also: Down on the Farm archives

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced $17.5 million in emergency funding to stop the spread of the spotted lanternfly in southeastern Pennsylvania. The spotted lanternfly, with its distinctive and colorful wings, was first identified in Pennsylvania in 2014. The affected area expanded from 174 square miles in fiscal year (FY) 2016 to approximately 3,000 square miles by the end of FY 2017.

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Laurel wilt is a disease of woody plants in the laurel family (Lauraceae). Hundreds of millions of redbay (Persea borbonia) trees have been killed by laurel wilt in the southeastern Atlantic Coastal Plain region of the United States (US). The disease has also killed large numbers of sassafras (Sassafras albidum) trees in forests and landscapes, and avocado (Persea americana) trees in commercial production. As of October 2019, laurel wilt was known to occur from Texas to North Carolina, south through Florida and north to Kentucky. Laurel wilt is expected to continue spreading through sassafras in the eastern US, and is a potential threat to California bay laurel (Umbellularia californica) in the western US and to lauraceous species elsewhere in the world.
See also: Region 8 - Forest & Grassland Health for more information.

See also: Forest Health Protection Contacts

Forest managers frequently make decisions regarding the use of pesticides on forest lands. These decisions must be based not only on the effectiveness of these tools, but also on an understanding of the risks associated with their use. For the pesticides commonly used by the Forest Service in its management activities, Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessments (HERAs) are prepared.