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Accessible Report (PDF) United States Department of Agriculture Story Map: Forest Health Summary for Southwestern Region 2019 USDA Forest Service Forest Health Protection, Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, New Mexico State Forestry Background: This is an accessible version of the content on the ESRI Story Map with the Forest Health Summary for the Southwestern Region 2019 which is at: http://www.fs.usda.gov/goto/r3/healthreport. This document contains the text and photographs of the Story Map, however note that the content of the interactive maps are not capable of being reproduced here. Introduction The Forest Health Protection Program works collaboratively with Arizona State Department of Forestry and Fire Management and New Mexico State Forestry to conduct annual aerial detection surveys of forest health conditions. These surveys assess forest insect and disease issues throughout the Southwestern Region. This includes damage such as tree mortality caused by bark beetles, tree defoliation by leaf/needle feeding caterpillars, tree discoloration, or branch flagging caused by pathogens, and abiotic factors like hail damage. In 2019, approximately 23,100,000 acres of Federal, state and private forest and woodlands in NM and AZ were surveyed. Insect and disease damage detectable from an aircraft were recorded by host, damage agent and intensity of damage using the Digital Mobile Sketchmapping application on Android tablets. Damage is recorded with points for small occurrences or with polygons for larger areas and given intensity levels depending on the severity of the damage. When interpreting this data, special attention should be paid to intensity levels. For more information on data interpretation, please read the methodology section below. This story map will highlight top damage agents across the Southwest Region in 2019. Forest Forest Health, January 2020 Service Southwestern 1 Region Map: Screen capture of interactive map in the Story Map that shows forest related damage mapped within the Southwestern Region in 2019. Map: Survey areas within the Southwestern Region in 2019 are shown in yellow. 2 Tree Mortality Ponderosa Pine Mortality There are several bark beetles that infest ponderosa pine including roundheaded, western pine, mountain pine and ips engraver beetles. It is not typically possible to discern the specific beetle species involved when mapping damage from the air, therefore a general bark beetle code is used when recording this damage. During the 2019 surveys, 280,000 acres of ponderosa pine mortality were recorded across the Region a noted decrease from 300,900 acres observed in 2018. Most of this damage occurred in small pockets of 1-5 trees scattered across the landscape. Large areas of the Chuska Mountains were mapped with ponderosa pine mortality, but most areas had a trace level of intensity, affecting only 1-3% of the treed area. The northern edge of the Mogollon Rim also had larger pockets of mortality especially in the vicinity of Flagstaff (Kaibab/Coconino NFs), Gash and Hutch Mountain area (Coconino NF), and from the Chevlon Canyon vicinity east to the Escudilla Peak Area (Apache-Sitgreaves NFs). Some larger pockets of scattered mortality were observed across most of the Jemez Mountains (Santa Fe NF). Photograph: Ponderosa pine mortality (yellow-green trees are current year mortality, reddish trees are previous year's mortality) observed northwest of Show Low, AZ on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests. 3 400,000 300,000 200,000 pine mortality pine 100,000 Acres with ponderosa Acres 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Year Chart: Acres with ponderosa pine mortality in the Southwestern Region from 2006 - 2019. Map: Screen capture of interactive map in the Story Map that shows areas with ponderosa pine mortality within the Southwestern Region in 2019. Pinyon Pine Mortality In Region 3, we detected over 275,000 acres with pinyon mortality. Arizona had roughly 84% of the total pinyon mortality which was primarily located across the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribal Lands. The remaining 16% of the damage was mapped in New Mexico and was evenly distributed across the northwestern portion of the state. Pinyon mortality was attributed to drought stress, pinyon ips bark beetle activity, and a combination of both. 4 300,000 200,000 100,000 Acres with pinyon mortality with pinyon Acres 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Year Chart: Acres with pinyon mortality in the Southwestern Region from 2006 - 2019. In most years, populations of pinyon ips are sparse and related forest damage is kept relatively low. However, when tree stress is initiated by other damage agents then the trees are not able to defend themselves as well against the beetles. Beetles quickly attack these weakened trees and the beetle populations can increase rapidly. In the Southwest, drought stress is particularly associated with outbreaks of pinyon ips. The bark beetles attack pinyon in the warmer months (March-October). Initial symptoms that a tree has been attacked by bark beetles can be hard to spot. Look closely at the tree and you may see small balls of resin where the bark beetle has bored into the tree. In many cases, the trees are too dry to exude any resin and the most obvious sign of attack will be a sawdust like material in bark crevices and around the base of the tree. Map: Screen capture of interactive map in the Story Map that shows areas with pinyon pine mortality within the Southwestern Region in 2019. 5 Photograph: Pinyon mortality (grey trees are older mortality; tan colored trees are current year's mortality) as observed on the Defiance Plateau of the Navajo Nation during the 2019 aerial detection survey. Photograph: Adult pinyon ips (Ips confusus) Douglas-fir Mortality Douglas-fir beetle activity has been on a steady decline from its peak of nearly 90,000 acres in 2013, but pockets of heavy mortality near recent wildfires continue to occur. While Douglas-fir beetle-caused mortality was found across the Region in scattered pockets, one of the heaviest areas of activity was on the San Mateo Mountains near the North Fire scar. Other areas of notable activity include the northern Jemez Mountains (Santa Fe NF), the Sangre de Cristo Range especially near the Jaroso and Pacheco Fire scars (Santa Fe NF), the Chuska Mountains on the Navajo Nation, the Pinaleño Mountains (Coronado NF), and the White Mountains (Apache–Sitgreaves NFs) near Greer, AZ. 6 Photograph: Douglas-fir beetle caused mortality (orange-red trees) along the edge of the North Fire scar in the San Mateo Mountains (Cibola NF). 100,000 80,000 60,000 fir mortality fir - 40,000 20,000 0 Acres withDouglas 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Year Chart: Acres with Douglas-fir mortality in the Southwestern Region from 2006 - 2019. 7 Photograph: Douglas-fir mortality (orange-red trees) below Mount Withington in the San Mateo Mountains (Cibola National Forest). Spruce Mortality Spruce beetle activity had a major impact on spruce-fir forests of northern New Mexico. In 2007, a large wind event south of Truchas Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range knocked down hundreds of acres of spruce-fir forest. Spruce beetle populations built up in the dead wood and by 2013 mortality in live spruce started to show up during aerial surveys. Since 2013 we have seen increasing spruce mortality across the Pecos Wilderness. 8 Photograph: Upper Pecos Wilderness, home to the Pecos River headwaters, looking west across to the Santa Barbara Divide. Spruce beetle-caused mortality is highly visible as the gray colors of dead spruce mix with corkbark fir and and fading yellow spruce recently hit by the bark beetle. Within areas of continued activity, cumulative mortality is greater than 50% based on aerial observations. Spruce mortality in the Latir Peaks/Columbine Hondo Wilderness areas have increased over the last two years. Other areas of notable decline include the Sunrise Park Ski Area (Fort Apache IR), the Chama Land Grant/Tres Piedras Ranger District (Carson NF) near the Colorado border, and the northern Jemez Mountains (Santa Fe NF). 60,000 40,000 mortality 20,000 Acres with spruce spruce with Acres 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Year Chart: Acres with spruce-beetle caused tree mortality in the Southwestern Region from 2006 - 2019. 9 Defoliation Aspen Across the Southwestern Region, we detected over 77,000 acres of aspen defoliation. In Arizona, the defoliation was largely attributed to a foliar disease known as black leaf spot. The defoliation event stretched across northern Arizona. Primary infection occurs soon after leaves emerge in spring, from spores produced on twig lesions or on infected fallen leaves. During wet springs, like the one observed in 2019, additional spores are produced with subsequent rain events, which initiates the repeating cycle of disease. Severe outbreaks may cause foliar browning in midsummer and nearly complete defoliation by late August. Regrowth of foliage occurs in late summer and early autumn. In New Mexico, the defoliation was primarily due to insect activity. The primary insects are the western tent caterpillar or the large aspen tortrix. The aspen defoliation was primarily located across the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range and Jemez Mountains. Photograph: Aspen defoliation attributed to the disease black leaf spot as observed during the 2019 aerial detection survey of the Chuska Mountains in Arizona. Aspen trees in center of photo have thin crowns and appear a dull greyish-green color. 10 200,000 150,000 damage 100,000 Acres with aspen with Acres 50,000 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Year Chart: Acres with all damage types to aspen in the Southwestern Region from 2006 - 2019.
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