Amends the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to use geospatial and information management technologies (including remote sensing imaging and decision support systems) to inventory, monitor, and identify National Forest System and private (with consent) forest stands.
Directs the Secretary to carry out such program through: (1) remote sensing technology of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Geological Survey; (2) emerging geospatial capabilities in research activities; (3) validating techniques; and (4) integration of results into pilot operational systems.
Directs the Secretary to address: (1) environmental threats (including insect, disease, invasive species, fire, acid deposition, and weather-related risks and other episodic events); (2) forest degradation, and preventive management practices; and (3) characterization of vegetation types, density, fire regimes, and post-fire effects. Directs the Secretary to designate a facility in the Ochoco National Forest headquarters within Forest Service Region 6 to address such issues, with particular emphasis on coniferous forest stands in the Western United States.
Directs the Secretary develop an early warning system for catastrophic environmental forest threats.