An Alliance to Address Threats to the Health of America’s Forests

An Alliance to Address Threats to the Health of America’s Forests is a series of essays from The Forestry Source, November 2019. © The Society of American Foresters, distributed with permission. 

On February 20, 2019, forest-health researchers, representatives of the forest-products industry, and nongovernmental organization staff members gathered for a meeting entitled “Academia & Industry Forest Health Initiative,” hosted by the University of Florida. The topic of forest health also was discussed by leaders of universities that include forest-resource programs. During subsequent discussions, the research, industry, and university communities agreed that the past structures for research funding are no longer sustainable, and that a united organization of stakeholders—a forest-health alliance—needs to work together to increase our collective capacity to improve forest-health research while we still have a resource to protect. The three essays presented here—one written from the research perspective, one written by representatives of the forest-products industry, and one written by university forestry program leaders—offer these communities’ converging perspectives on the threats to the health of US forests. In these statements, the authors declare their concern about the contrast between the immense value of our forests and the declining support for forest-health research.