Forest Carbon Estimation and Monitoring

The Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program is legislated by Congress to conduct the Nation’s forest census. FIA works with States and many other partners to collect data from over 325,000 field sampling areas, or plots, across 50 States, U.S. Territories, and current and former protectorates. This data is used to produce annual and 5-year reports on the status and trends of our forests. FIA is the primary source of data on U.S. terrestrial carbon stocks and flux.