Potter, K.M., and J.L. Paschke. 2015. Large-scale patterns of insect and disease activity in the conterminous United States, Alaska and Hawaii from the national insect and disease survey, 2013. Chapter 2 in K.M. Potter and B.L. Conkling, eds., Forest Health Monitoring: National Status, Trends and Analysis, 2014. General Technical Report SRS-209. Asheville, North Carolina: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. pp. 19-38. Monitoring the occurrence of forest

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... t and pathogen outbreaks is important at regional scales because of the significant impact insects and disease can have on forest health across landscapes. National insect and disease survey data collected in 2013 by the Forest Health Protection Program of the Forest Service and by partners in State agencies identified 73 different mortality-causing agents and complexes on 1.53 million ha in the conterminous United States, and 83 defoliating agents and complexes on approximately 2.94 million ha. Geographic hot spots of forest mortality were associated with bark beetle infestations in the West. Hot spots of defoliation were associated with fall cankerworm, baldcypress leafroller, forest tent caterpillar, and gypsy moth in the East, and with western spruce budworm, larch needle cast, and aspen defoliation in the West. Mortality was recorded on a very small proportion of the surveyed area in Alaska and Hawaii. The most important defoliation agent was birch leafroller in Alaska and koa looper moth in Hawaii.