United States Department of Agriculture Forest Inventory and Analysis Fiscal Year 2016 Business Report Forest Service FS-1075 August 2017 Disclaimer 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). Remedies and complaint filing deadlines vary by program or incident. 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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, DC. 20250-9410; (2) fax: (202) 690-7442; or (3) email: [email protected]. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender. United States Department of Agriculture Forest Inventory and Analysis Fiscal Year 2016 Business Report Prepared by J.T. Vogt, Forest Service Research and Development, Southern Research Station, Forest Inventory and Analysis, Knoxville, TN And W. Brad Smith (retired), Forest Service Research and Development, Forest Inventory and Analysis, Washington, DC Cover photo: Spruce bog in Bayfield County, WI, courtesy of Sjana Schanning, Ecologist, Northern Research Station FIA. Forest Service FS-1075 August 2017 Contents Executive Summary ..............................................................1 Fiscal Year 2017 FIA Program Direction ............................51 Introduction ...........................................................................3 Long-Term Strategic Direction ...........................................52 Changes From Previous Years’ Business Reports .................4 Conclusions .........................................................................55 Fiscal Year 2016 Program Overview ....................................5 Glossary of Terms Used in Appendixes ..............................56 Outputs and Products .....................................................6 Program Resources ........................................................7 Appendix A. Contacts .........................................................59 FIA Grants and Partners’ Contributions.........................8 FIA Data Availability ...................................................10 Appendix B. Tables .............................................................60 Quality Assurance ........................................................11 List of Figures and Tables Regional Program Accomplishments for FY 2016 .............12 Northern Research Station FIA Program .....................12 Figure 1. FIA implementation status, FY 2016. ................ 6 Pacific Northwest Research Station FIA Program .......15 Rocky Mountain Research Station, Interior West Figure 2. FIA program available funds and expenses FIA Program ...........................................................18 by category, FY 2016. ........................................ 7 Southern Research Station FIA Program .....................21 National FIA Program ..................................................25 Figure 3. FIA-appropriated funding level, FYs 2007– Other National Office Accomplishments .....................25 2016 (projected). ................................................ 8 FIA Data Requests and Access ....................................26 Partners ........................................................................26 Figure 4. FIA program employees by job group, FY 2016 Spatial Data Requests ...................................26 FY 2016. ............................................................. 8 FY 2016 Web Tools .....................................................27 Consultations by FIA Staff ..........................................28 Figure 5. Grants and agreements by recipient group, FY 2016. ............................................................. 9 National Inventory and Monitoring Applications Center ...29 National Forest Collaboration ......................................29 Figure 6. Availability of online FIA data, FY 2016. ........ 10 Other FIA Program Features ...............................................31 Figure 7. Publication status of State reports, FY 2016. ... 11 Urban Forest Inventory ................................................31 Forest Products, Utilization, and National Figure 8. Forest ownership across the United States. ...... 12 Woodland Owner Studies .......................................32 Enhanced Forest Indicator Surveys .............................34 Figure 9. Random forests model predictions of soil Special Partnerships Spanning Cultures .....................35 organic carbon stocks (0–100 cm) for all national forest inventory plots with at least Program Safety ....................................................................37 one forest land condition in the conterminous United States. ................................................... 13 Regional Safety Highlights for FY 2016 ............................39 Northern Research Station FIA Safety Highlights .......39 Figure 10. Map of year of initial EAB detection by Pacific Northwest Research Station FIA Safety county, 2013 (as of December 31, 2013). ........ 14 Highlights ...............................................................40 Rocky Mountain Research Station, Interior West Figure 11. Ash volume, per hectare, by EAB invasion FIA Safety Highlights .............................................41 status and inventory year with linear Southern Research Station FIA Safety Highlights .......42 regression lines. ................................................ 15 Comparing FY 2015 Plans With FY 2016 Accomplishments and FY 2017 Plans .........................44 Fiscal Year 2016 Business Report i Figure 12. Estimates and standard errors of proportion of Figure 27. Number of OSHA (Occupational Safety and burned area by tree-mortality severity class, Health Administration) recordable cases by and geographic zone in Oregon and Washington unit, FYs 2011–2016. ....................................... 38 National Forests System (NFS) lands (1993– 2007). ............................................................... 16 Figure 28. Planned FIA implementation status, FY 2017 ............................................................ 51 Figure 13. Estimated mean post-fire dynamics for California forests’ carbon pools following Figure A-1. FIA regions and headquarters ......................... 59 (a) low, (b) moderate, and (c) high severity fires. ................................................................. 17 Table 1. Overview of land area, FIADB forest area, RPA forest area, estimated P1 pixels and Figure 14. Upper Tanana Valley study region in Alaska. estimated P2 plots by region in FY 2016 ........... 5 The solid lines are the airborne laser scanning flight lines......................................................... 18 Table 2. Annual FIA appropriations and allocation of FIA-appropriated and State-contributed Figure 15. A grid cell with two GEDI overpasses. ........... 19 funds for fieldwork only for FYs 2007–2016 .... 7 Figure 16. The empirical and estimated variances as a Table 3. FIA grants and partners’ contributions, function of the number of overpasses. ............ 19 FYs 2007 through FY 2016 (10-year summary) ........................................................... 9 Figure 17. Delineation of riparian areas based on flood magnitude allows a flexible delineation for Table 4. Number of database retrievals using FIA application across broad, diverse watersheds. 20 Web applications by fiscal year ........................ 27 Figure 18. Fremont cottonwoods require flood Table 5. Number and hours of significant disturbance to regenerate. ............................... 21 consultations by FIA staff, by customer group, FY 2016 ................................................ 28 Figure 19. Screenshot of the Southern Forest Products storymap depicting how wood moves around Table 6. Urban plots by State and metro/urban the Southern United States. .............................. 22 area ................................................................... 31 Figure 20. Hardwood saw logs in West Virginia. .............. 23 Table 7. FIA program Federal employee estimates for hours worked, miles driven, aircraft Figure 21. A landscape view of Cruz Bay from the hours