The USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis Database and the National Register of Champion Trees — A Potentially Symbiotic Relationship

Abstract

This article shows how probability sampling and citizen science efforts can complement each other, using the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program and the ongoing search by the National Register of Champion Trees (NRCT) for the largest specimen of each naturally occurring tree species in the United States as an example. We develop a ratio statistic (Zs) that uses the difference in size of the largest tree of a species from each database to order the tree species according to the assumed ease with which a larger specimen than the current national champion might be found. Our results show ninety-two candidate species that have been recorded by FIA for which there is no national champion and sixty-five species for which a new champion should be easy to find. In a supplemental table, we show ninety-four species listed as observable by FIA in the NRCT but not recorded in the FIA sample.

Citation

Roesch, Francis A; Schroeder, Todd A; Price, Charles A. 2024. The USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis Database and the National Register of Champion Trees — A Potentially Symbiotic Relationship. Journal of Forestry. 4(2012): e0136237-. https://doi.org/10.1093/jofore/fvad058.