North Central Research Station

Annual Trends for Forest Service Issues in the News

Each annual trend chart summarizes the news media discussion for one of the policy issues for the most recent 12 months. You can move from one annual chart to another by clicking on the list of policy issues on the left or right side of the Web page. Clicking on a particular month on an annual trend chart will take you to the corresponding monthly chart.

Before February 2005, a commercial database of news stories was the data source for both the annual and monthly charts. CyberAlert.com began to be used in February 2005 as the data source. CyberAlert contains more news sources than the database that was used before February 2005. Because of the discontinuity in data sources, there is a jump in the amount of discussion of each of the issues between January and February 2005.

Click on “Save SVG Image as JPEG” (located below the chart) to save a monthly chart as a JPEG file. The JPEG image may be used in presentations or reports.

The Policy Issues

Conflict - an index of expressions of conflict in the news media related to the other seven policy issues (Fuels Reduction, Healthy Forests, Invasives, Logging, Motorized Recreation, Planning Rule, and Roadless).

Fuels Reduction - captures news media discussion of hazardous fuels reduction and thinning.

Healthy Forests - captures news media discussion of the Healthy Forests Initiative and Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) of 2003 and ongoing discussion of the implementation of HFRA.

Invasives - captures news media discussion of invasive species in the context of the Forest Service, including general discussion (e.g., aggressive weeds, alien species, aquatic weeds), terrestrial plants (e.g., buckthorn, Canada thistle, canary grass), terrestrial animals (e.g., Africanized honeybee, woolly adelgid, emerald ash borer), aquatic and wetland plants (e.g., milfoil, purple loosestrife, water chestnut), aquatic and wetland animals (e.g., alewife, Asian carp, Asian swamp eel), and microbes (e.g., blister rust, butternut canker, chestnut blight).

Logging - captures news media discussion of timber and salvage harvest in the context of the Forest Service.

Motorized Recreation - captures news media discussion of motorized recreation in the context of the Forest Service (e.g., ATV, dirt bikes, off-road vehicle).

Planning Rule - captures news media discussion of the 2005 National Forest Management Act (NFMA) Planning Rule, which was rolled out in December 2004.

Roadless - captures news media discussion of Forest Service roadless rule and road building.