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Monitoring state forest lands in standardization with a national forest inventory program

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Within the past decade, there has been increasing interest in uniformity of forest inventory techniques and methods. Where forest inventories are already in place, harmonization is often needed to recast various metrics and measurements to a common definition so that results can be compared and summarized across various spatial scales without regard to administrative boundaries, e.g., national borders (Winter et al. 2008). Although more difficult to achieve, standardization is more desirable as consistent methods are used at the outset and no post-hoc procedures are required (Köhl et al. 2000). While emphasis has primarily been on harmonization between nations, there are a number of advantages that accrue when standardizing small-area inventories with a national program that covers the same geographic area. In the U.S. Forest Service, the National Inventory and Monitoring Applications Center within the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program assists other organizations in planning and conducting forest monitoring. In most cases, these efforts can use the same definitions and protocols as the FIA program. Special local or regional information needs are addressed by additions or modifications to the existing methods. In this paper, recently established state forest monitoring efforts are used to illustrate the advantages of standardization with the FIA national program.

Citation

Westfall, James A.; Scott, Charles T. 2009. Monitoring state forest lands in standardization with a national forest inventory program. In: Extending forest inventory and monitoring over space and time; IUFRO Div. 4 proceedings; 2009 May 19-22; Quebec, Canada. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University. 5 p.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/46277