Barry T. Wilson

Imputing forest carbon stock estimates from inventory plots to a nationally continuous coverage

The U.S. has been providing national-scale estimates of forest carbon (C) stocks and stock change to meet United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reporting requirements for years. Although these currently are provided as national estimates by pool and year to meet greenhouse gas monitoring requirements, there is growing need to disaggregate these estimates to finer scales to enable strategic forest management and monitoring activities focused on various ecosystem services such as C storage enhancement. Through application of a nearest-neighbor imputation approach, spatially extant estimates of forest C density were developed for the conterminous U.S. using the U.S.’s annual forest inventory. Results suggest that an existing forest inventory plot imputation approach can be readily modified to provide raster maps of C density across a range of pools (e.g., live tree to soil organic carbon) and spatial scales (e.g., sub-county to biome). Comparisons among imputed maps indicate strong regional differences across C pools. The C density of pools closely related to detrital input (e.g., dead wood) is often highest in forests suffering from recent mortality events such as those in the northern Rocky Mountains (e.g., beetle infestations). In contrast, live tree carbon density is often highest on the highest quality forest sites such as those found in the Pacific Northwest. Validation results suggest strong agreement between the estimates produced from the forest inventory plots and those from the imputed maps, particularly when the C pool is closely associated with the imputation model (e.g., aboveground live biomass and live tree basal area), with weaker agreement for detrital pools (e.g., standing dead trees). Forest inventory imputed plot maps provide an efficient and flexible approach to monitoring diverse C pools at national (e.g., UNFCCC) and regional scales (e.g., Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation projects) while allowing timely incorporation of empirical data (e.g., annual forest inventory).

Approaches to monitoring changes in carbon stocks for REDD

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation plus improving forest-management (REDD+) is a mechanism to facilitate tropical countries’ participation in climate change mitigation. In this review we focus on the current state of monitoring systems to support implementing REDD+. The main elements of current monitoring systems – Landsat satellites and traditional forest inventories – will continue to be the backbone of many forest-monitoring systems around the world, but new remote-sensing and analytical approaches are addressing monitoring problems specific to the tropics and implementing REDD+. There is increasing recognition of the utility of combining remote sensing with field data using models that integrate information from many sources, which will continue to evolve as new sensors are deployed and as the availability of field data increases.

Minnesota's forests 1999-2003 (Part A)

The first completed annual inventory of Minnesotas forests reports more than 16.2 million acres of forest land. Additional forest attribute and forest health information is presented along with information on agents of change including changing land use patterns and the introduction of nonnative plants, insects, and diseases.

Indiana's Forests 2008

The second full annual inventory of Indianas forests reports more than 4.75 million acres of forest land with an average volume of more than 2,000 cubic feet per acre. Forest land is dominated by the white oak/red oak/hickory forest type, which occupies nearly a third of the total forest land area. Seventy-six percent of forest land consists of sawtimber, 16 percent contains poletimber, and 8 percent contains sapling/seedlings. The volume of growing stock on timberland has been rising since the 1980s and currently totals more than 8.5 billion cubic feet. The average annual net growth of growing stock on forest land from 2004 to 2008 is approximately 312 million cubic feet per year. This report includes additional information on forest attributes, land use change, carbon, timber products, forest health, and statistics and quality assurance of data collection.

Wisconsin's forests, 2004

The first full, annualized inventory of Wisconsins forests was completed in 2004 after 6,478 forested plots were visited. There are more than 16.0 million acres of forest land in the Wisconsin, nearly half of the States land area; 15.8 million acres meet the definition of timberland. The total area of both forest land and timberland continues an upward trend that began in the 1960s. Red maple, sugar maple, and quaking aspen are the most common trees with diameters at breast height greater than 5 inches; there are 298, 250, and 244 million trees of these species, respectively. Aspen is the most common forest type, followed by sugar maple/beech/yellow birch, and white oak/red oak/hickory. This report includes detailed information on forest attributes and health and on agents of change such as the introduction of nonnative plants, insects, and diseases and changing land-use patterns.

The U.S. forest carbon accounting framework: stocks and stock change, 1990-2016

As a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United States annually prepares an inventory of carbon that has been emitted and sequestered among sectors (e.g., energy, agriculture, and forests). For many years, the United States developed an inventory of forest carbon by comparing contemporary forest inventories to inventories that were collected using different techniques and definitions from more than 20 years ago. Recognizing the need to improve the U.S. forest carbon inventory budget, the United States is adopting the Forest Carbon Accounting Framework, a new approach that removes this older inventory information from the accounting procedures and enables the delineation of forest carbon accumulation by forest growth, land use change, and natural disturbances such as fire. By using the new accounting approach with consistent inventory information, it was found that net land use change is a substantial contributor to the United States forest carbon sink, with the entire forest sink offsetting approximately 15 percent of annual U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. The new framework adheres to accounting guidelines set forth by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change while charting a path forward for the incorporation of emerging research, data, and the needs of stakeholders (e.g., reporting at small scales and boreal forest carbon).

North Dakota's forests 2005

The second annual inventory of North Dakotas forests reports more than 772,000 acres of forest land with an average volume of more than 921 cubic feet per acre. Forest land is dominated by the bur oak forest type, which occupies more than a third of the total forest land area. The poletimber stand-size class represents 39 percent of forest land, followed by sawtimber (32 percent) and saplings/seedlings (28 percent). The volume of growing stock currently totals more than 341 million cubic feet. The average annual net growth of growing stock on forest land from 2006 to 2010 was approximately 6.8 million cubic feet per year. This report includes additional information on forest attributes, land use change, carbon stocks, timber products, forest health, and statistics, methods, and quality assurance of data collection. Detailed information on forest inventory methods and data quality estimates is included in a DVD at the back of this report. Tables of population estimates and a glossary are also included.

Wisconsin's Forests 2009

The second full annual inventory of Wisconsins forests reports more than 16.7 million acres of forest land with an average volume of more than 1,400 cubic feet per acre. Forest land is dominated by the oak/hickory forest-type group, which occupies slightly more than one quarter of the total forest land area; the maple/beech/birch forest-type group occupies an additional 23 percent. Forty-two percent of forest land consists of large diameter stands, 23 percent contains medium diameter stands, and 8 percent contains small diameter stands. The volume of growing stock on timberland has been rising since the 1980s and currently totals more than 21.1 billion cubic feet. The average annual net growth of growing stock on forest land from 2005 to 2009 is approximately 572 million cubic feet per year. This report includes additional information on forest attributes, land use change, carbon, timber products, forest health, and statistics and quality assurance of data collection.

Tree species distribution in the United States Part 1

ABSTRACT The distribution and local abundance of tree species constitute basic information about our forest ecosystems that is relevant to understanding their ecology, diversity, and relationship to people. The US Forest Service conducts a forest inventory across all forest lands in the United States. We developed geospatial models of forest attributes using this sample-based inventory which make this information available for an even wider variety of applications. From these modeled datasets, we created a series of maps for 24 US states in an effort to connect more people to trees, the datasets, and the scientific research behind them. Presenting these maps in an attractive way invites engagement. The sidebar text is presented in accessible scientific language that clearly defines terms, guides readers in interpreting the maps and histograms, and provides source details and links. The resulting maps are inviting, informative, and accessible to a broad range of people of different ages and backgrounds.

Nebraska's Forests 2010

The second full annual inventory of Nebraskas forests reports more than 1.5 million acres of forest land and 39 tree species. Forest land is dominated by the elm/ash/cottonwood and oak/hickory forest types, which occupy nearly half of the total forest land area. The volume of growing stock on timberland currently totals 1.1 billion cubic feet. The average annual net growth of growing stock from 2005 to 2010 is nearly 22 million cubic feet per year. This report includes additional information on forest attributes, land use change, carbon, timber products, and forest health. A DVD included in this report contains (1) descriptive information on statistics and quality assurance of data collection, (2) a glossary of terms, (3) tables that summarize quality assurance, (4) a core set of tabular estimates for a variety of forest resources, and (5) a Microsoft Access database that represents an archive of data used in this report, with tools that allow users to produce customized estimates.