Operational Use of Southern Pine Beetle Survey Information
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Survey and monitoring activities are generally undertaken to identify where and to what extent insects and diseases are impacting the resources and conditions of the forest environment. Often the usefulness of a survey is directly related to how quickly the data can be collected, organized, interpreted, and viewed. The USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Protection (FHP), conducts surveys and monitors southern pine beetle (SPB) populations on public lands throughout the range of the insect in the Southern United States. This task is complex and involves aerial detection, data collection on the ground, database management, and application of the survey information. In this chapter we describe the technology used to facilitate operational use of SPB survey information. A Web-based computer system, the SPB Map/Text Reporter (SPB-M/TR), is used for this purpose. The SPB-M/TR is a Web-based geographic information system (Web-based GIS) designed to facilitate operational use of SPB survey information for suppression, prevention, evaluation, and reporting purposes. The SPB-M/TR organizes, summarizes, and interprets the SPB survey information collected from the public forest land in Region 8. The SPB-MT/R extracts SPB survey data from the SPBIS (the Southern Pine Beetle Information System) database and uses it in combination with spatial data from the Ranger Districts to build interpreted reports and maps. Access to the SPB-M/TR is through the Internet.