Healthy forests are important to the citizens of North Carolina.
The first year for Forest Health Monitoring in North Carolina was 1998. The distribution of the plots by various descriptors of forest stands is listed below. The age class distribution was relatively evenly distributed throughout the state. Red and white oaks were numbers two and three for live trees, respectively, which is expected due the large proportion of oak forest type groups in the state. The high abundance for red maple is primarily due to its high shade tolerance, absence of any major insect or disease pests, and low cutting rate due to its low timber value.