As California has endured increasingly severe droughts, a long-running federal research program has used planes to survey, and help explain, the growing toll on the landscape: how many trees have died, what areas are being hit hardest and where wildfire risk is greatest. The state Aerial Detection Survey, run by the U.S. Forest Service, however, has become a casualty of the Trump administration. … The research flights, which for decades crisscrossed California’s forests to assess their health, ground to a halt last year because of funding and staffing reductions, federal officials say. 

Other drought monitoring news:

• KSJD (Cortez, Colo.): New NOAA tool aims to improve drought forecasting