United States Department of Agriculture Forest Resources of the United States, 2017 A Technical Document Supporting the Forest Service 2020 RPA Assessment Sonja N. Oswalt, W. Brad Smith, Patrick D. Miles, and Scott A. Pugh Forest Service Gen. Tech. Report WO-97 March 2019 In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity, in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA (not all bases apply to all programs). 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Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by: (1) mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; (2) fax: (202) 690- 7442; or (3) email: [email protected]. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender. Abstract Oswalt, Sonja N.; Smith, W. Brad; Miles, Patrick D.; Pugh, Scott A., coords. 2019. Forest Resources of the United States, 2017: a technical document supporting the Forest Service 2020 RPA Assessment. Gen. Tech. Rep. WO-97. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington Office. 223 p. https://doi.org/10.2737/WO-GTR-97. This publication provides forest resource statistics contributing to the 2020 Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment to provide current information on the Nation’s forests. Resource tables present estimates of forest area, volume, mortality, growth, removals, and timber-product output in various ways within the context of changes since 1953. Additional analyses look at the resource from an ecological, health, and productivity perspective. Tables are available in .pdf and Excel format online at https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/ program-features/rpa/index.php. Users may also query Forest Inventory and Analysis data using the online EVALIDator tool, selecting the radio button labeled “Use RPA definition of forestland” on the second page of the query tool, available online at https://apps.fs.usda.gov/Evalidator/evalidator.jsp. Maroon Lake, Aspen, CO. Courtesy photo by istockphoto.com/Sean Xu. Coordinators Sonja N. Oswalt, Forester USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station 4700 Old Kingston Pike Knoxville, TN 37919 W. Brad Smith, Research Forester (Retired) Patrick D. Miles, Research Forester USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station 1992 Folwell Ave. St. Paul, MN 55108 Scott A. Pugh, Forester USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station 410 MacInnes Drive Houghton, MI 49931 Forest Resources of the United States, 2017 ii Winter in Colorado. Courtesy photo by istockphoto.com/Ron Thomas. Contributing Authors (alphabetically arranged) Francisco X. Aguilar is an associate professor of forest resource John Coulston is a supervisory research forester with the economics and policy at the University of Missouri’s School Southern Research Station in Blacksburg, VA. His research of Natural Resources. Francisco studies the sustainable use focus is developing and applying quantitative tools and of wood as a renewable energy feedstock, impacts of public techniques to assess resource conditions and characteristics policy on bioenergy generation, evaluation of public opinion across broad spatial scales. Email: [email protected]. on the use of renewable energy, and the formal adoption of environmental standards, among other topics affecting forest Michael Dockry is a research forester with the Strategic resource use. He is co-leader of the Team of Specialists on Foresight Group at the Northern Research Station in St. Paul, Wood Energy of the United Nations’ Economic Commission MN. His research is focused on developing tools and methods for Europe Forestry and Timber Section. Email: aguilarf@ to support forest and natural resource planning and manage- missouri.edu. ment that incorporate multiple uses, goals, and perspectives from broad segments of society. Email: [email protected]. Hans-Erik Andersen is a research forester with the Pacific Northwest Research Station in Anchorage, AK. His research Grant M. Domke is a research forester with the Forest Inven- includes developing new techniques for using remote sensing tory and Analysis (FIA) program of the Northern Research and other geospatial technologies within large-scale, multi-ob- Station in St. Paul, MN. His research focus centers on forest jective resource inventory systems. carbon accounting within the FIA program of the Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Michael Benedict is part of the Division of Forestry and Email: [email protected]. Wildlife Fire in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Kerry Dooley is a forester with the Forest Inventory and James D. Blehm is a supervisory forester with the Forest Analysis program of the Southern Research Station, located in Inventory and Analysis program of the Northern Research Knoxville, TN. Dooley is the primary analyst for Oklahoma Station in St. Paul, MN. Email: [email protected]. and Texas, States that contain the majority of woodland forest types in the Southern United States. Email: [email protected]. Mark J. Brown is a resource analyst with the Forest Inventory and Analysis program of the Southern Research Station in Alan Ek is professor emeritus, Department of Forest Resources, Knoxville, TN. Brown is responsible for monitoring and University of Minnesota, St. Paul. He has bachelor’s and master’s reporting on forest conditions in Florida and North Carolina. degrees from the University of Minnesota and a doctorate from His regional areas of focus include reporting on the status Oregon State University. He joined the faculty at Minnesota in and trends of the South’s cypress population and the South’s 1977, after service with the Canada Department of Forestry mangrove population. Email: [email protected]. and the University of Wisconsin. His service at the University of Minnesota included several decades as department head. Brett J. Butler is a research forester with the Forest Inventory Ek is the author of numerous research and technical papers on and Analysis program of the Northern Research Station forest growth modeling, inventory design, resource analysis, in Amherst, MA. His focus is developing survey methods and planning. Email: [email protected]. for collecting information from private forest landowners, analyzing trends in private forest landowners and the land that Marla Emery is a research geographer with the Northern Research they own, and studying the factors that influence decisions Station in Burlington, VT. Her research focus is contemporary made by private landowners. Email: [email protected]. nontimber forest product, or NTFP, uses, especially in the Eastern United States but also elsewhere in the industrialized James L. Chamberlain is a research forest products technologist world. Email: [email protected]. with the Southern Research Station in Blacksburg, VA. His research focus is developing ongoing methods for quantifying Sara A. Goeking is a biological scientist with the Forest the harvest, use, and socioeconomic importance of nontimber Inventory and Analysis program based in Ogden, UT. forest products. Email: [email protected]. Goeking focuses on long-term forest monitoring in the Interior iii West, links between forest cover and hydrologic processes, Research Station. Email: [email protected]. and effects of natural disturbance. Recent projects include an assessment of whitebark pine in mixed-species stands, an Mark Majewsky is a supervisory forester with the Forest analysis of fire effects, and international tech transfer for forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis program in Tofte, MN. monitoring in developing countries. Email: [email protected]. He leads the Urban FIA program and coordinates FIA data us. collection in Michigan, Minnesota, and North Dakota. Andrew N. Gray is a research ecologist with the Forest Kristin Manies is a scientist with the Climate and Land Use Inven tory and Analysis program and a team leader in the Pacific program of the U.S. Geological Service. Her research focuses North west Research Station, stationed in Corvallis, OR. Gray on Interior Alaska. Email: [email protected]. focuses on monitoring effects of natural disturbance and Humfredo Marcano-Vega is a research biologist with the management on the composition