Forest Health Highlights 1997
Virginia
The Virginia Department of Forestry provides forest health protection assistance to state and private land managers within the State. This program is funded cooperatively by the State and the USDA Forest Service Forest Health Protection unit.
Virginia Forest Facts
Over
66% of Virginia is forested (more than 15.2 million acres).
Almost
85% of forested acreage in Virginia is privately owned.
The
George Washington and Jefferson National Forests (1.4 million
acres) provide recreational and wildlife benefits as well as timber products
and jobs for thousands of people.
Gypsy
moth defoliation started to affect Virginia's hardwood forests in
1984 and became an increasingly serious problem on the next decade. However,
an introduced fungal disease decimated gypsy moth caterpillars in 1996
and defoliation was so light that it could not be mapped. The same was
true in 1997 and little defoliation is expected in l998.
Since
1993, Virginia has participated with the USDA Forest Service in a pilot
project to demonstrate that the rate at which the gypsy moth spreads into
new areas could be reduced in a cost effective manner using current technology.
Several intervention projects have taken place within the state over the
past 4 years and the results indicate that the rate of spread of the gypsy
moth can be slowed by 60%.
Southern
pine beetle (SPB) infestations were at low levels in 1997. This cyclic
insect sometimes kills millions of board feet in timber statewide. Cooperative
state-federal monitoring programs help ensure that personnel and budgets
are prepared to deal with predicted outbreaks. The outlook for 1998 is
for relatively low populations.
Oak
decline is impacting Virginia's upland hardwood forests. Casual factors
are stressors such as drought, frost, and defoliation by insects, and
root disease. Oak decline and gypsy moth defoliation often overlap and
that leads to higher levels of oak mortality.
The
hemlock woolly adelgid was first reported in Virginia in 1950.
This insect has now spread across most of the State infesting and killing
eastern hemlock. State and federal officials are investigating both chemical
and biological control methods for limiting the impact of the adelgid
in high value areas.
Virginia
is actively participating in a national Forest Health Monitoring program.
Through a network of 100 forested plots and regularly scheduled surveys,
the Department of Forestry annually collects and interprets a wide variety
of data to estimate current health of the forest.
The Virginia Department of Forestry
and USDA Forest Service
In spite of the relatively good health of Virginia's forests, a variety of insects and diseases (both native and introduced), and human-caused impacts such as air pollution, continue to threaten the State's resources. To deal with this constantly changing mix of challenges, the Virginia Department of
Forestry and the Forest Health Protection unit of the USDA Forest Service cooperate to prevent, detect, suppress and manage this multitude of threats. The partnership between the two agencies has worked for three decades to maintain and improve the health of Virginia's forests.
Forest Health Protection contributions (dollars) to the Virginia Department of Forestry Cooperative Forest Health Program, cooperative pest suppression projects and National Forests in Virginia pest suppression projects, 1995-98.