Christopher W. Woodall

Maine's forests 2008

The second annual inventory of Maines forests was completed in 2008 after more than 3,160 forested plots were measured. Forest land occupies almost 17.7 million acres, which represents 82 percent of the total land area of Maine. The dominant forest-type groups are maple/beech/yellow birch, spruce/fir, white/red/jack pine, and aspen/white birch. Statewide volume equals 25.5 billion ft3, resulting from nearly 590 million ft3 of live-tree volume grown each year. The report also contains additional information on sustainability, biomass, carbon, forest health, land-use change, and timber products. The DVD includes detailed information on forest inventory methods, quality of estimates found, and tables forest statistics.

Michigan's forests 2004

The first annual inventory of Michigans forests, completed in 2004, covers more than 19.3 million acres of forest land. The data in this report are based on visits to 10,355 forested plots from 2000 to 2004. In addition to detailed information on forest attributes, this report includes data on forest health, biomass, land-use change, and timber-product outputs.

Pennsylvania's forest 2004.

Pennsylvanias forest-land base is stable, covering 16.6 million acres or 58 percent of the land area. Sawtimber volume totals 88.9 billion board feet, an average of about 5,000 board feet per acre. Currently, only half of the forest land that should have advance tree seedling and sapling regeneration is adequately stocked with high-canopy species, and only one-third has adequate regeneration for commercially desirable timber species. Several exotic diseases and insects threaten the health of Pennsylvanias forests. Stressors such as drought, acidic deposition, and ground-level ozone pollution are adversely affecting the States forests.

Minnesota's Forests 2008

The second full annual inventory of Minnesotas forests reports 17 million acres of forest land with an average volume of more than 1,000 cubic feet per acre. Forest land is dominated by the aspen forest type, which occupies nearly 30 percent of the total forest land area. Twenty-eight percent of forest land consists of sawtimber, 35 percent poletimber, 35 percent sapling/seedlings, and 2 percent is nonstocked. 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 disease. Detailed information on forest inventory methods, data quality estimates, and important resource statistics can be found on the Statistics and Quality Assurance DVD included in this report.

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.

Indiana's forest resources in 2002.

Reports the initial results of five annual panels (2001-2005) of the inventory of Indianas forest resources and two panels (2004 and 2005) of growth, removals, and mortality. Includes information on forest area, number of trees, volume, biomass, growth, removals, mortality, and forest health.

South Dakota's forests 2005

The first completed annual inventory of South Dakotas forests reports almost 1.7 million acres of forest land. Softwood forests make up 74 percent of the total forest land area; the ponderosa pine forest type by itself accounts for 69 percent of the total.

Delineating managed land for reporting national greenhouse gas emissions and removals to the United Nations framework convention on climate change

Land use and management activities have a substantial impact on carbon stocks and associated greenhouse gas emissions and removals. However, it is challenging to discriminate between anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic sources and sinks from land. To address this problem, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change developed a managed land proxy to determine which lands are contributing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and removals. Governments report all emissions and removals from managed land to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change based on this proxy, and policy interventions to reduce emissions from land use are expected to focus on managed lands. Our objective was to review the use of the managed land proxy, and summarize the criteria that governments have applied to classify land as managed and unmanaged. We found that the large majority of governments are not reporting on their application of the managed land proxy. Among the governments that do provide information, most have assigned all area in specific land uses as managed, while designating all remaining lands as unmanaged. This designation as managed land is intuitive for croplands and settlements, which would not exist without management interventions, but a portion of forest land, grassland, and wetlands may not be managed in a country. Consequently, Brazil, Canada and the United States have taken the concept further and delineated managed and unmanaged forest land, grassland and wetlands, using additional criteria such as functional use of the land and accessibility of the land to anthropogenic activity. The managed land proxy is imperfect because reported emissions from any area can include non-anthropogenic sources, such as natural disturbances. However, the managed land proxy does make reporting of GHG emissions and removals from land use more tractable and comparable by excluding fluxes from areas that are not directly influenced by anthropogenic activity. Moreover, application of the managed land proxy can be improved by incorporating additional criteria that allow for further discrimination between managed and unmanaged land.

Iowa's Forests 2008

The second full annual inventory of Iowas forests (2004-2008) reports more than 3 million acres of forest land, almost all of which is timberland (98 percent), with an average volume of more than 1,000 cubic feet of growing stock per acre. American elm and eastern hophornbeam are the most numerous tree species, but silver maple and bur oak predominate in terms of live tree volume. Iowas forest land is comprised of 65 percent sawtimber, 19 percent poletimber, and 16 percent sapling/seedling or nonstocked size classes. Average annual net growth of growing-stock trees on Iowas timberland increased during the past decade to the current estimate of nearly 105 million cubic feet. This report includes additional information on forest attributes, land use change, carbon, timber products, and forest health. A DVD included in this report includes 1) descriptive information on methods, 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.

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.