Findings are made available in a policy analysis publication series. This is the eleventh report in the series. The other ten reports are listed in the inside cover. Forests are important to Idaho for many reasons, and they will continue be. A prolonged drought has subjected forests throughout the Inland West to increased stress, accompanied by insect infestations and disease, creating a situation referred to by many as a forest health crisis.
Some feel compelled to take action, others say there is no problem.
The advisory committee suggested we undertake this project because of the large number of dead trees in Idaho forests, public controversy about what to do with the dead trees, and concerns about the effects of those actions on other components of Idaho's forest ecosystems. Forestry research has traditionally reduced forestry problems into ever-smaller pieces. The emerging concept of forest ecosystem health and its implications for managing Idaho's forests for all the benefits Idahoans have come to expect promises to take a broader integrated approach to forestry problems. The interdisciplinary approach of the Policy Analysis Group gives it the broad perspective needed to address how sustaining healthy forest ecosystems might proceed in Idaho. The topic is complex, and this report is necessarily lengthy.