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Summary

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Healthy ecosystems are those that are stable and sustainable, able to maintain their organization and autonomy over time while remaining resilient to stress (Costanza 1992). The National Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) Program of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, with its cooperating partners within and outside the Forest Service, quantifies the health of U.S. forests within the context of the sustainable forest management criteria and indicators outlined in the Santiago Declaration on the conservation and sustainable management of temporal and boreal forests (Anon. 1995). The analyses and results outlined in this report offer a snapshot of the current condition of U.S. forests, incorporating baseline investigations of forest ecosystem health (chapters 2, 3, and 4), examination of change over time in forest health metrics (chapters 5 and 6), and the assessment of developing threats to forest stability and sustainability (chapters 7 and 8).

Parent Publication

Citation

Potter, Kevin M. 2011. Summary. In: Conkling, Barbara L., ed. 2011. Forest health monitoring: 2007 national technical report. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-147. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. pages 155- 157. 3 p.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/57233