Abstract
The first full remeasurement of the annual inventory of the forests of Vermont and New Hampshire was completed in 2012 and covers nearly 9.5 million acres of forest land, with an average volume of nearly 2,300 cubic feet per acre. The data in this report are based on visits to 1,100 plots located across Vermont and 1,091 plots located across New Hampshire. Forest land is dominated by the maple/beech/birch forest-type group, which occupies 60 percent of total forest land area. Of the forest land, 64 percent consists of large diameter trees, 27 percent contains medium diameter trees, and 9 percent contains small diameter trees. The volume of growing stock on timberland has continued to increase since the 1980s and currently totals nearly 19 billion cubic feet. The average annual net growth of growing stock on timberland from 2007 to 2012 is approximately 380 million cubic feet per year. Important species compositional changes include increases in the number of red maple trees and American beech saplings which coincide with decreases in the number of eastern white pine and sugar maple trees as well as eastern white pine and northern red oak saplings. Additional information is presented on forest attributes, land use change, carbon, timber products, species composition, regeneration, and forest health. Detailed information on forest inventory methods and data quality estimates is included on the DVD accompanying this report. Tables of population estimates and a glossary are also included.
Keywords
forest resources,
forest health,
forest products,
volume,
biomass,
carbon,
habitat
Citation
Morin, Randall S.; Barnett, Chuck J.; Butler, Brett J.; Crocker, Susan J.; Domke, Grant M.; Hansen, Mark H.; Hatfield, Mark A.; Horton, Jonathan; Kurtz, Cassandra M.; Lister, Tonya W.; Miles, Patrick D.; Nelson, Mark D.; Piva, Ronald J.; Wilmot, Sandy; Widmann, Richard H.; Woodall, Christopher W.; Zaino, Robert. 2015. Forests of Vermont and New Hampshire 2012. Resour. Bull. NRS-95. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 80 p.
