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[ Return to FHP Southern Region
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The Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA), Forestry Division provides forest health protection assistance to state and private land managers within Tennessee. This program is funded cooperatively by the State and the USDA Forest Service Forest Health Protection unit.
Over 1/2 of Tennessee is forested (more than 14.4 million acres).
Tennessee’stree species diversity rivals the whole European continent.
Over 85% of forested acreage in Tennessee is privately owned. Small landowners comprise the largest group.
The Cherokee National Forest (556,000 acres) provides recreational and wildlife benefits as well as forest products industry jobs for thousands of people.
Oak decline impacts timber and recreation in Tennessee. It results in dieback and mortality of large, mature oaks. A complex of factors such as drought, frost, insect defoliation, and secondary agents such as root and canker diseases and wood boring insects contribute to the disease. Forest surveys indicate that nearly 9% (738,600 acres) of oak forest is vulnerable. Oak decline will become more prevalent as this forest continues to mature. In 2001, effects of the summer droughts of 1998-2001 continued to increase oak mortality (primarily red oaks) in each of the four major regions of the state.
Another threat to the hardwood-dominated forests of Tennessee is the gypsy moth. The State works closely with the USDA Forest Service to monitor and quickly identify any accidental introductions of the gypsy moth. There have been several successful large eradication projects, up to 40,000 acres, in the past 6 years. In 1999, a cooperative spray project in Scott County sprayed over 1,900 acres with the biological insecticide, Btk. The gypsy moth was detected at 47 separate locations throughout the State in 2001. One of five infestations will require increased trapping as well as the proposed spraying of over 8,500 acres with Btk in Campbell County for eradication in 2002.
Dogwood anthracnose infects and destroys one of the state’s most economically and ecologically important trees, the flowering dogwood. The disease is currently found in 59 counties in the eastern half of the State. The plot survey of dogwood anthracnose within the infected counties found 49% of the trees dead from dogwood anthracnose in 1998. This exotic disease has now infected over 3.6 million acres of dogwood in Tennessee.
The southern pine beetle is the most damaging insect pest in the State. Beetle populations continued to increase statewide for the fourth year in a row in most areas of the state and moved into counties where the insect had never before been reported. In 2001, 70 counties had SPB activity with 58 counties classified in outbreak status. There were over 12,000 infestations statewide. The outbreak was so intense in the mountains and Cumberland Plateau that stands of pure white pine and hemlock were infested, an uncommon phenomenon. The southern yellow pine component in several eastern counties was reduced by over 50 percent.
In spite of the relatively good health of Tennessee’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 Tennessee Division 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 Tennessee’s forests.
|
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cooperative Forest Health Program |
59,879 |
59,879 |
53,736 |
72,682 |
|
Forest Health Monitoring |
53,000 |
106,000 |
53,000 |
53,000 |
|
Cooperative suppression/eradication - gypsy moth eradication |
75,000 |
25,000 |
4,100,000 |
0 |
|
Cherokee National Forest - southern pine beetle suppression |
0 |
94,000 |
100,000 |
120,000 |
|
Cherokee National Forest - gypsy moth eradication |
3,000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
For additional information, contact:
Tennessee Department
of Agriculture
Division of
Forestry
P.O. Box 40627
Nashville, TN 37204-0627
Phone: (615) 837-5176
E-mail: bkauffman@state.tn.us
http://www.state.tn.us/agriculture/forestry/health/index.html
or
Forest Health Protection
P.O. Box 2680
Asheville, NC 28802-2680
Phone: (828) 257-4320
E-mail: creynolds02@fs.fed.us
Internet: http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/foresthealth
