The Swiss Forest Damage Inventory ''SANASILVA 1984'' was set up to investigate forest decline in clustered sample plots of a representative 4 x 4 km grid system. For dominant and co-dominant conifers in general, higher needle loss was associated with growth decline over recent decades, mostly triggered by climatic extremes. A pooled growth pattern of all needle loss classes shows slightly increasing growth since the beginning of the century. This trend has been checked by new corings dating from 1992 for spruce, fir and beech. Mid-term growth trends are found to continue for the most recent period, 1984-1991.