Research on managing forest health helps us understand how ecosystems function and how they respond to multiple stresses and disturbances.
Forests are dynamic systems that naturally change over time.
We expect healthy forests to sustain the production of a diverse array of goods, services and amenities while safeguarding biodiversity, enhancing wildlife habitat, and protecting watersheds. As the predominantly second-growth forests of the region age, as our climate possibly changes, and as new biotic disturbances appear, northeastern forests and their managers face challenges and threats to forest health that require sustained research activities and new initiatives. Current forest attributes and conditions such as species composition, stand and age structure, and growth rates are influenced greatly by past outbreaks of exotic and native pests and pathogens, by past forestry and agricultural practices and by proximity to urban centers. We need to develop ecologically and socially acceptable insect and disease management practices and minimize the impact of abiotic stressors to restore and maintain healthy forest ecosystems. Accidental introductions of exotic insects and pathogens such as gypsy moth and the chestnut blight fungus have drastically altered northeastern forests.