A comparison of tree health among forest types and conditions at Fort AP Hill, Virginia

Fort A.P. Hill's Range and Training Land Assessments (RTLA) program initiated long-term monitoring of installation forests to assess forest health and ensure optimal sustainability of forest resources for military training activities. A subset of forest health indicators developed by the USDA Forest Service Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) and Forest Inventory and Analysis programs were used to assess forest health on Army training lands at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia. Indicators of tree crown condition and tree damage condition were taken in forested areas where military training occurs, "tactical concealment areas (TCAs)," and on continuous forest monitoring (CFM) plots established in control stands where military training is absent. A higher percent of trees with high crown dieback, low crown density, and multiple types of stem damage were observed within TCAs than on CFM plots. The results are indicative of possible long-term changes to forest health from military training activities. The FHM forest health indicators proved to be an effective and useful approach to assess tree conditions.