Insects and Diseases

Alaska Forest Insect and Disease Surveys

The Forest Health Conditions in Alaska - 2007 report (PDF) on statewide insect and disease survey is now available.

The Alaska 2005 Forest Health Aerial Detection Survey data, from cooperative aerial surveys conducted by Forest Health Protection staffs of the Alaska Region Forest Service and the Alaska Division of Forestry, can now be viewed on individual quad maps online at http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/spf/fhp/aerial_survey/2005quadindex.htm.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently published a CD-ROM of its forest insect damage coverages, including several maps based on data collected during annual statewide aerial surveys. The CD includes spruce bark beetle damage coverages as well as a number of conifer and hardwood defoliators. Aerial surveys are conducted jointly each summer by federal U.S. Forest Service, Forest Health Protection and Alaska DNR, Division of Forestry entomologists to assess forest condition statewide. Please check this site periodically for additional information, maps, and GIS coverages based on these surveys.

2004 Forest Health Protection Report - Forest Insect and Disease Conditions in Alaska
This links to the U.S. Forest Service, State & Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection, Region 10, Alaska web area. It contains a full PDF version of the 2004 Alaska statewide aerial survey of forest insect and disease damage, including both low and high resolution web maps for viewing and downloading of the survey information (full report is 96 pages, including Appendices). The "Alaska Forest Conditions" report is published by the U.S. Forest Service and Alaska Division of Forestry each year. Full details and contact information for the state and federal contributors to this report are included if additional forest health information is required from this and previous surveys.

2003 Forest Health Protection Report - Forest Insect and Disease Conditions in Alaska (PDF)

2003 Forest Service, S&PF, Forest Health Protection site that contains higher resolution web maps from the 2003 report; this link is currently being updated and may change slightly as additional information is added but can be reached for this and additional Alaska forest health information from the USFS FHP home page.

2002 Forest Health Protection Report - Forest Insect and Disease Conditions in Alaska (PDF)

2001 Alaska Insect and Disease Conditions Report
The following files are all in PDF format.
Due to the file size of this report, it has been broken down into segments:

Part 1

Bark Beetles

Part 2

Defoliators

- Invasive Pests

Part 3

Ecological Role of Forest Diseases

- Stem Diseases

- Heart Rots

- Stem Decay of Hardwoods

- Shoot Blights and Cankers

- Foliar Diseases

- Root Diseases

For a hard copy of this report, or for more information, contact Roger Burnside.

2000 Alaska Insect and Disease Conditions Report

1999 Alaska Insect and Disease Conditions Report

1998 Alaska Insect and Disease Conditions Report (PDF)

1997 Alaska Insect and Disease Conditions Report (PDF)

Information Available From Statewide Aerial Surveys
Each year, forest damage surveys are conducted over approximately 30 million acres. This annual survey is a cooperative effort between U.S. Forest Service, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection (S&PF/FHP) and State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry (AKDNR/DOF) forest health staffs to assess general forest conditions on Alaska's 129 million acres of forested area. About 25% of Alaska's forested area is covered each summer using fixed-wing aircraft and trained observers to prepare a set of sketch-maps depicting the extent (polygons) of various types of forest damage including recent bark beetle mortality, various hardwood and conifer defoliation, and abiotic damage such as yellow-cedar decline. A number of other damage types are noted including flooding, wind damage, and landslide areas during the survey. The extent of many significant forest tree diseases, such as stem and root decays, are not estimated from aerial surveys since this damage is not visible from aerial surveys as compared to the pronounced red topped crowns of bark beetle-killed trees.

In this way, forest damage information is sketched on 1:250,000 scale USGS quadrangle maps at a relatively small scale. For example, at this scale one inch would equal approximately 4 miles distance on the ground. When cooperators request specialized surveys, larger scale maps are sometimes used for specific areas to provide more detailed assessments. Due to the short Alaska summers, long distances required, high airplane rental costs, and the short time frame when the common pest damage signs and tree symptoms are most evident (i.e., usually only during July and August), sketch-mappers must strike a balance to efficiently cover the highest priority areas with available personnel schedules and funding.

Prior to the annual statewide forest conditions survey, letters are sent to various state and federal agency and other landowner partners for survey nominations. The federal and state biological technicians and entomologists decide which areas are highest priority from the nominations. In addition, areas are selected where several years' data are collected to establish trends from the year-to-year mapping efforts. In this way, general damage trend information is assembled for the most significant pests and compiled in this annual Conditions Report. The sketch-map information is also digitized and put into a computerized Geographic Information System (GIS) for more permanent storage and retrieval by users.

Information listed below is a sample of the types of products that can be prepared from the statewide surveys and GIS databases that are available. Survey data for past years, including 2005, is available at http://agdc.usgs.gov/data/projects/fhm.

Forest Health Map information included in the 2005 Alaska Forest Health Protection report:

Aerial Detection Survey, 2004, Significant Pest Activity, 11x17 inch format, depicting aspen leaf miner, active yellow-cedar decline, spruce budworm, engraver beetle, birch leaf miner, and spruce beetle (color; showing enhanced representation of damage areas).
2004 Alaska Forest Damage Surveys Flight Lines and Major Alaska Landownership Blocks (includes table listing acres surveyed by landowner based on flight lines flown for the 2004 aerial surveys).
Kenai Peninsula Region Spruce Beetle Activity 1993-2004, 8 x 11 inch format, depicting sequential 2 year intervals of spruce beetle activity in south-central Alaska, including the Kenai Peninsula, Cook Inlet area to Anchorage, and Talkeetna (includes vegetation base layer).
The Spruce Beetle Outbreak: Year 2004, 8 x 11 inch format, depicting 2004 damage in red and prior damage, 1989-2003 in yellow (includes color shaded relief base showing extent of forest landscape and sample photos of spruce beetle impact).
Southeast Alaska Cedar Decline 2004 Aerial Detection Surveys, 8 x 11 inch format, depicting cumulative Alaska yellow-cedar decline over several years and points of current activity. Forested areas are delineated with color shaded relief background.
Birch Leaf Miner, 8 x 11 inch format, depicting 2004 birch defoliation in the Fairbanks vicinity extending south to Eielson AFB. The map displays road survey data points divided into 5 colored intensity categories.
2004 Anchorage Bowl Locations, Exotic Insect Monitoring, 8 x 11 inch format showing monitoring location of Amber-marked birch leaf miner, gypsy moth, nun moth, and various woodborers.
Spruce Budworm in Interior Alaska, 8 x 11 inch format, depicting current (red) and historical (orange) spruce budworm defoliation, mostly on the Tanana and upper Yukon Rivers.
Distribution of six invasive weed in the Anchorage basin, 5 x 7 inch format, shows survey results of seven important invasive weeds from 2002-2004.
Southeast Alaska invasive weed inventory, 2004, 8 x 11 inch format showing locations of some common and important invasive weeds in Southeast Alaska.

Map and GIS products available upon request:

Digital data file of 2004 forest damage coverage in ArcInfo cover or ArcView shape file (ESRI, Inc.) format. GIS data files are available at http://agdc.usgs.gov/data/projects/fhm/.
An electronic version of this report, including maps and images, will be available at the Alaska USFS, State & Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection web site.
Cumulative forest damage or specific-purpose damage maps prepared from AK/DOF or AK USFS, S&PF, FHP geographic information system database.

Submit data and map information requests to:
Roger Burnside, Forest Entomologist, AKDNR Forestry, Anchorage
907-269-8460, Forest Entomologist
Email

Dustin Wittwer, Aerial Survey Coordinator, US Forest Service, Juneau
907-586-8811
E-mail: dwittwer@fs.fed.us

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