WA forest health survey finds 545,000 acres of stressed or dead trees [View all]

More than half a million acres of trees spread across Washington were sick, struggling, or dead last year, according to the results of an aerial survey of forests by the state’s Department of Natural Resources.

Surveyors identified about 545,000 acres with some level of tree mortality, defoliation, or disease, the department said this week. That’s less than 1% of the total forestland surveyed.

The amount of forest with problems is up nearly 30,000 acres from 2023 and more than the 10-year average of 519,000 acres, but well below the acres mapped with diseased or dead trees in 2022, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

The Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service partnered to conduct an aerial survey of 22 million forested acres in Washington state to observe recently killed and damaged trees. They carried out the survey between June and September last year.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/07/02/wa-forest-health-survey-finds-545000-acres-of-stressed-or-dead-trees/