Forest Service Resource Inventories: An Overview

Abstract

Forest and related resource inventories are conducted by the US. Forest Service to provide the quantitative base necessary for making sound management, conservation, and stewardship decisions affecting these valuable resources. Inventory information has guided the management of 191 million acres (77.3 million ha) of publicly-owned National Forest land. Forest inventories on private and public lands have helped guide industrial expansion into the most suitable and opportune locations. They have identlied problems already created or developing in the timber supply. They have provided key forest resource information for planners and policy makers. Our inventory experts have advised and assisted myriad groups, organizations, and countries in solving complex resource questions, They are motivated to continually improve the reliability and usefulness of forest resource statistics and analyses of resource conditions. Collecting, displaying, and analyzing spatial and temporal resource data using geographical information systems; investigating practical and novel uses of remote sensing including satellite imagery: monitoring the environmental health of U.S. forests: and identifying the extent and condition of forests in our urban areas are but a few of the new frontiers that Forest Service inventories are beginning to explore. Any changes, expansion, or shifts in program emphasis, however, are made with utmost care to insure that all information is based on adequately tested procedures and research and that links to invaluable historical records are maintained.

This report provides an overview of the major forest and related resource inventories conducted by the U.S. Forest Service. Attention focuses on legislative and administrative mandates, the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, National Forest System resource inventories, linkages among Forest Service inventories, and major partnerships and cooperators.

Citation

USDA Forest Service 1992. Forest Service Resource Inventories: An Overview. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Inventory, Economics, and Recreation Research, Washington, DC. 39 p.