United States Department of Agriculture 
                             Forest Ecosystem 
                             Health Indicators
         Forest Service       FS-1151     March 2020
       CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
       KaDonna C. Randolph            Research Mathematical Statistician   Southern Research Station
                                                                           Forest Inventory and Analysis
                                                                           Knoxville, TN 37919
       Randall S. Morin               Research Forester                    Northern Research Station
                                                                           Forest Inventory and Analysis
                                                                           Newtown Square, PA 19073
       Kerry Dooley                   Forester                             Southern Research Station
                                                                           Forest Inventory and Analysis
                                                                           Knoxville, TN 37919
       Mark D. Nelson                 Research Forester                    Northern Research Station
                                                                           Forest Inventory and Analysis
                                                                           St. Paul, MN 55108
       Sarah Jovan                    Research Ecologist                   Pacific Northwest Research Station
                                                                           Portland, OR 97205
       Christopher W. Woodall         Research Forester                    Northern Research Station
                                                                           Forest Inventory and Analysis
                                                                           Durham, NH 03824
       Bethany K. Schulz              Emeritus Scientist                   Pacific Northwest Research Station
                                      Research Ecologist                   Forest Inventory and Analysis
                                                                           Anchorage, AK 99501
       Charles H. Perry               Research Soil Scientist              Northern Research Station
                                                                           Forest Inventory and Analysis
                                                                           St. Paul, MN 55108
       Cassandra M. Kurtz             Forester                             Northern Research Station
                                                                           Forest Inventory and Analysis
                                                                           St. Paul, MN 55108
       Sonja N. Oswalt                Forest Resource Analyst              Southern Research Station
                                                                           Forest Inventory and Analysis
                                                                           Knoxville, TN 37919
       William H. McWilliams          Research Forester                    Northern Research Station
                                                                           Forest Inventory and Analysis
                                                                           Newtown Square, PA 19073
                                                                           (No longer with the Northern 
                                                                           Research Station)
       Rachel Riemann                 Research Forester/Geographer         Northern Research Station
                                                                           Forest Inventory and Analysis
                                                                           Troy, NY 12180
                  Randall S. Morin, Compiler
                  USDA Forest Service
                  Northern Research Station
                  11 Campus Boulevard
                  Newtown Square, PA 19073
                  Randall.S.Morin@USDA.gov
                                                                        CONTENTS
                                                                            Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
                                                                            Clients and Products  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
                                                                            Crown Condition  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
                                                                            Tree Damage  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
                                                                            Tree Mortality and Standing Dead Trees  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
                                                                            Lichen Communities  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
                                                                            Down Woody Materials  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
                                                                            Vegetation Profile  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
                                                                            Soil Quality  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
                                                                            Invasive Plant Species  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
                                                                            Regeneration and Browse Impact  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
                                                                            Fragmentation, Urbanization,  
                                                                            and Landscape Context  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
                                                                            Summary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
                                                                            Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
                  Beaver damage.                                            References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
                  (Photo by Sjana Schanning, USDA Forest Service)
                  ONLINE STORY MAP:
                  https://usfs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=a434a8d7b3d447c8a747efb4fd22d742# 
                                                                                                     Forest Ecosystem Health Indicators       1
        INTRODUCTION
        The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) 
        Program is the Nation’s continuous forest census. Since 1930, we have collected, analyzed, and reported 
        information on the status and trends of America’s forests: how much forest exists, where it exists, who owns 
        it, and how it is changing — growing, dying, being harvested, or converted to and from forest land uses. In 
        response to widening customer interests, the FIA developed a program that was implemented in the same 
        manner on all U.S. forest lands. This included sampling an extended suite of forest health indicators. Many 
        of these indicators were developed and initially measured by the Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) Program 
        in the 1990s. In 1999, they were transferred to FIA and now are a subset of the FIA inventory.
        Originally, the health indicators were sampled on 1 of every 16 standard FIA plots, but this design faced 
        budget and logistical constraints. In 2012, FIA redesigned the health program as a flexible system with 
        spatial and temporal intensities that are adaptable to meet budgetary constraints, client needs, and regional 
        issues. A minimum national set of protocols are “core” to the forest/ecosystem health indicator program. 
        These health indicators are collected at intensities ranging from a minimum of approximately 7 percent 
        up to 25 percent of the standard plot grid. In addition, the Vegetation Profile and Down Woody Materials 
        indicators are sampled on all plots in the Western United States. The FIA indicators discussed in this 
        publication are:
        ƒ Crown Condition (KaDonna C. Randolph)
         ƒ Tree Damage (Randall S. Morin and Kerry Dooley)
         ƒ Tree Mortality and Standing Dead Trees (Randall S. Morin and Mark D. Nelson)
         ƒ Lichen Communities (Sarah Jovan) (adjunct inventory conducted by National Forest Systems in some 
         regions; retired as a national core indicator)
         ƒ Down Woody Materials (Christopher W. Woodall)
         ƒ Vegetation Profile (Bethany K. Schulz)
         ƒ Soil Quality (Charles H. Perry)
         ƒ Nonnative Invasive Plants (Cassandra M. Kurtz and Sonja N. Oswalt)
         ƒ Regeneration and Browse Impact (William H. McWilliams)
         ƒ Fragmentation and Landscape Context (Rachel Riemann)
         The Ozone Injury indicator was retired around 2010, but data from 1994 to 2010 are available in the FIA 
         database. Sampling and estimation procedures are documented in Smith et al. (2007).
         The purpose of this publication is to describe these health indicators by providing:
         ƒ Background information about how and why the indicator was developed
         ƒ Examples of the data, products, and publications available
         ƒ The direction of future research and development
    2   Forest Ecosystem Health Indicators