U.S. Forest Service Interior Alaska Forest Inventory and Analysis Program
Date: December 12, 2017
Presenter: Kate Legner, Supervisory Biological Scientist, Interior Alaska Unit, U.S. Forest Service – Forest Inventory & Analysis
Presenter: Kate Legner, Supervisory Biological Scientist, Interior Alaska Unit, U.S. Forest Service – Forest Inventory & Analysis
Summary:
The Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program acts as the Nation’s forest census by inventorying all potentially forested lands in all 50 states and the Pacific Islands. Until 2014, the 15% of the nation’s forests in Interior Alaska were uninventoried. With the official launch of the Interior Alaska FIA in 2016, the Anchorage Forestry Sciences lab in cooperation with the State of Alaska Division of Forestry have taken on the largest (110 million acres) and most remote forest inventory in the country. FIA collects data on forest composition and condition, tree size and age, insects and diseases, vegetation structure and composition, invasives, down woody materials and has added specific protocols for lichens/mosses and soils to better represent Interior boreal forest components. This dataset will be essential to assessing Interior Alaska forest change over time and answering critical scientific and management questions.
The Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program acts as the Nation’s forest census by inventorying all potentially forested lands in all 50 states and the Pacific Islands. Until 2014, the 15% of the nation’s forests in Interior Alaska were uninventoried. With the official launch of the Interior Alaska FIA in 2016, the Anchorage Forestry Sciences lab in cooperation with the State of Alaska Division of Forestry have taken on the largest (110 million acres) and most remote forest inventory in the country. FIA collects data on forest composition and condition, tree size and age, insects and diseases, vegetation structure and composition, invasives, down woody materials and has added specific protocols for lichens/mosses and soils to better represent Interior boreal forest components. This dataset will be essential to assessing Interior Alaska forest change over time and answering critical scientific and management questions.
