[ Return to FHP Southern Region
]
[ Return to FHP Southern Region
]
The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Forestry Services provides forest health protection assistance to state and private land managers within the State. The State and the USDA Forest Service Forest Health Protection unit fund this program cooperatively.
Over 20% of the State of Oklahoma is forested (about 10 million acres).
Over 90% of forested acreage in Oklahoma is privately owned. Small landowners comprise the largest group.
The Ouachita National Forest covers more than 397,000 acres in Oklahoma, and provides recreational and wildlife benefits as well as timber products and jobs for hundreds of people.
Major insect and disease outbreaks have been infrequent within the forested areas of eastern Oklahoma.
While the southern pine beetle (SPB) occasionally causes problems, only minor activity was present in 2001. However, due to the stress created by drought and excessive heat in 1998 - 2001, pine engraver beetle populations remained high on southern pines.
Weather (drought and excessive heat) severely impacted Oklahoma’s forests and tree plantings in 1998 - 2001. Many trees showed wilt and scorch symptoms as well as much defoliation. The extent of dieback and mortality will not be fully known until future years. A severe ice storm hit SE Oklahoma Christmas day, 2000. Widespread damage to forests occurred over some 6 million acres in 39 counties, with salvage and recovery efforts conducted in 2001.
Gypsy moth trapping is routinely carried out in order to detect new infestations of this exotic pest. Trapping in 2001 yielded no catches.
In spite of the relatively good health of Oklahoma’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 Oklahoma Forestry Services 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 Oklahoma’s forests.
|
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cooperative Forest Health Program |
45,000 |
45,000 |
40,383 |
54,922 |
For additional information, contact:
Oklahoma Department
of Agriculture
Forestry Services
2800 N Lincoln Blvd.
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
Phone: (405) 521-3864
E-mail: patrick@oda.state.ok.us
Internet: http://www.state.ok.us/~okag/forhome.html
or
USDA Forest Service
Forest Health Protection
2500 Shreveport Highway
Pineville, LA 71360
Phone: (318) 473-7286
E-mail: sstanley@fs.fed.us
Internet: http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/foresthealth
