Science for productive forests: Understanding trends and projections
Logs on the Alaska Peak Timber Sale on the Tahoe National Forest.
America relies on timber and wood products from our Nation’s forests for everything from building materials to energy production to medical products to firewood. Since the Forest Service’s inception, agency scientists have worked shoulder to shoulder with forest managers to support sustainable and efficient timber production. These efforts continue. Forest Service Research and Development staff are constantly harnessing data, developing tools, applications, and new technologies, and bringing innovations to market in support of America’s forest products industry. We support the long-term viability of working forests through evidence-based science.
The Forest Service provides authoritative, nationwide data on the status and trends of forest resources and wood processing facilities. Our estimates of tree volume, size, and species distribution support sustained timber growth and yield.
The Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA), which resides in Forest Service Research and Development, collects, processes, analyzes, and reports data on the extent and condition of the Nation’s forest resources — as mandated by Congress. FIA provides wood supply information that supports capital allocation decisions in the forest industry for job-creating mill openings and expansions and information to support domestic and export markets. FIA analysts regularly collaborate with national forest staff to support planning and decisionmaking. For example, in eastern national forests analysts worked on a model to help managers decide where to invest in oak management, and in western forests, they have supported long-term wildlife habitat monitoring.
Stewardship timber sale harvesting on the Angelina National Forest, Texas.
The FIA program conducts the Nationwide Forest Inventory, an on-the-ground and remote sensing strategic inventory of 355,000 forested plots. Inventory findings deliver accurate estimates of forest resources that support timber production. The data, information, and estimates produced by the Nationwide Forest Inventory are fused with remotely sensed imagery for products like BIGMAP, which displays 327 different tree species at a 30-meter pixel spatial resolution throughout the conterminous United States.
The FIA program also developed Timber Products Output Survey collects information on active wood processing facilities, including their capacity, roundwood intake, products, and residues. Managers and scientists use these data to model mill capacity and support capital allocations in the forest industry. (e.g., mill construction and improvements). Data from the Nationwide Forest Inventory and Timber Products Output Survey help managers evaluate timber availability and have supported nearly every mill opening or expansion in the last 20 years.
Sixty percent of the nation’s forests are privately owned. The FIA National Woodland Owner Survey tracks who owns these forests, why they own them, how they use them, and what they intend to do with them. This information helps policymakers and agency professionals make informed decisions about programs, policies, and services that support private landowners and ensure the health of all forested lands.
A forester measures Eastern Hemlock trees on the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest.
The Agency’s congressionally mandated Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment summarizes trends in natural resources and projects their availability and condition 50 years into the future. The assessment helps land managers maintain the productivity and economic stability of the Nation’s renewable resources. The Assessment team develops projections that consider national and global population and economic growth, international trade openness, bioenergy and wood energy use, land use development patterns, and biophysical drivers of change. The FIA provides essential data for developing these projections. The RPA Assessment projections help land managers develop and prioritize long-term strategies regarding timber harvests and fuel treatments, while the associated modeling framework allows them to compare long-term implications of different management approaches. Timber companies rely on the RPA Assessment projections of forest-products markets to assess the viability of large investments. The RPA Assessment projections for water, rangelands, biodiversity, and recreation resources help streamline active forest management planning and prioritization and can also minimize management delays and barriers caused by disturbance impacts and legal challenges.
Our scientists also contribute to international assessments of forests and forest management and produce tools, such as the selective logging module, to simulate land use change and forest degradation in tropical forests.
