Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Analysis and Reporting Needs for Annual Forest Inventories in the South

Informally Refereed

Abstract

The annual forest inventory system essentially eliminates the concept of the periodic inventory. Therefore, the reporting requirements and needs for individual States will change as the South makes the transition to full annual inventories. The Farm Bill and the Forest Service Strategic Plan require both annual reports and 5-year comprehensive, analytical reports. The Southern Research Station Forest Inventory and Analysis unit proposes that the annual reports be brief research notes, supplemented by available hard copy and electronic tabular data. The annual reports will summarize estimates derived from a moving average of five inventory panels. Based on the preceding 5 years of data, succinct analytical reports will focus on status and change in forest resourceswith color maps and graphicsand nonproduct-related issues. A statistical report published prior to the analytical report can contain all tabular data, detailed discussions of inventory methods, sampling errors, and definitions. Where the previous full inventory is outdated and cannot be included in moving-average estimates, there will still be a need for interim reports in States that have initiated annual plot measurements.

Citation

Thompson, Michael T. 2001. Analysis and Reporting Needs for Annual Forest Inventories in the South. In: Reams, Gregory A.; McRoberts, Ronald E.; Van Deusen, Paul C., eds. 2001. Proceedings of the second annual Forest Inventory and Analysis symposium; 2000 October 17-18; Salt Lake City, UT. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-47. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. pp. 114-116
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/4536