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Forest Inventory and Analysis (865)862-2000
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FAQ's
Has the National Core Program really been established? Yes. There are now more similarities between the
FIA units than there were about 10 years ago. The
current program has 80 - 85% comparable data collected nationwide
from a National FIA Field Guide. The
processing system National Information and Management System is
implemented in all FIA regions and a National data recorder program
is being developed. Under the annualized system, are you going to
the 15% or 20% system? Annualized inventories
in the 1998 Farm Bill were funded for a 7-year inventory (15%)
in the east and a 10-year (10%) inventory in the west. States
always have the option of buying-down to
a 5-year inventory (20%). Could you explain briefly the terms cycle, sub-cycle,
and panel?
How current
are the Phase I DOQ’s? This will vary by state;
however we are working with other Federal agencies and are planning
to acquire new 1-meter resolution imagery every 5 years for each
state. There is also the possibility that there will
be 2-meter resolution imagery available for each state between
the 5-year cycle of data collection. How large is each hexagon cell for each plot? Each hexagon is approximately
5,936 acres in size. Do you require a Bachelors of Forestry to apply
for the field positions? I
have seen forestry technicians with 2-year degrees. Yes if we are hiring
a forester. A forest technician only requires a 2-year
forest technician degree or a BS in a related natural resource
field, i.e. botanist or ecologist. It
is possible to use forest technicians to collect FIA field data. Most hiring for data collection in the southern
US is completed by State Forestry agencies. If you have a 7-year
cycle, are you going to do a percentage out of all on a 5-year
cycle? Actually,
the plot logistics are based on a 5-year cycle – 5 panels. If you move to a 7-year cycle then the plots
have to be distributed across the panels. That
is why they need to re-allocate the plots to 70 sub-panels so that
the plots can be distributed across the entire state. Note: 5, 7, and 10 are the least common denominator
of 70 – the current cycles in FIA. On a 5-year cycle, do you re-measure? Re-measurements will
occur regardless of the cycle length. Plots
are not re-measured more than once per cycle and because we are
not doing sampling with replacement. When manuals are changed, does it jeopardize
the data that was taken from an earlier version manual? It should not. As many as anticipated comparability issues
are accounted for prior to changing data collection variables. Will the new privacy policy affect landowners
having data taken on their own land? This
shouldn’t affect
data collection. Because
the privacy policy is designed to keep the ownership information
confidential, it may increase access to plots. The National Land Cover
Database (NLCD) is produced by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristic
(MRLC) Consortium which is a group of federal agencies (e.g. US
Forest Service, EPA, BLM, NASA). The
MRLC coordinates the production of the NLCD which is a nationally
consistent satellite remote sensing land cover product. For
more information, see http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k_nlcd.asp. How does the 30 meter NLCD data relate to the
plot size and layout? Each pixel in the NLCD is approximately 1/22nd in acres. Each subplot is 1/24th in acres. What is the reason for going from double sampling
for area to stratified estimation if the estimate has a higher
variance? It is faster and cheaper but it is not necessarily
better. In some cases, forest
area estimates based on double sampling for area may have lower
variance but this will depend on the quality and age of the photography
being used. In cases where the photography is old or of
poor quality, the variance can be quite high. The
National Information Management System does not support double
sampling for area. Rather
it uses stratified estimation or double sampling for stratification. As a result, forest area estimates are based
on field observations. Field
observations are then grouped into homogenous strata based on an
independent Phase I (either photography, NLCD, etc.). The National Information
Management System, NIMS is a National data processing used for
FIA plot data. How will a moving or rolling average be calculated? The values will be
calculated by using the 5 most current sub-cycles of data regardless
of the cycle that they were collected. The
moving average will be developed blending the most recent panel
of data with the 4 most recent panels from the previous cycle. For
example; you complete cycle 3 sub-cycles 1,2,3,4,5 and
then cycle 4 sub-cycle 1. We
will combine cycle 3 sub-cycles 2,3,4,5 with cycle 4 sub-cycle
1 (assuming you collected the panels in order from 1 to 5). Are annual inventories updated to the internet
every year? Annual inventory information
is updated on the internet after the completion of a sub-cycle
in the field and only after all editing and data review is completed. The current target is 6 months after the completion
and verification of the field data for that sub-cycle for that
state. What coordinates are posted on the National
FIA website data? All publicly available coordinates are fuzzed and swapped. All annual
plot coordinates are fuzzed within 0.5 miles for most plots and
up to 1.0 mile on a small subset of them. This
was done to make it difficult to locate the plot on the ground,
while maintaining a good correlation between the plot data and
map-based characteristics. Swapping
plot location is due to the large size of some ownerships as
the data could be linked to these owners. The
original coordinates of up to 20% of the private plot coordinates
are swapped with another similar private plot within the same county. Both of these procedures are done to protect
private landowner rights as stipulated in the amendment of the
Food Securities Act so that that FIA plot data cannot be linked
to its owner. Is the only mandate for publications to produce
a 5-year report? Yes, it is Congressionally mandated
within the 1998 Farm Bill. How many sub-cycles will the 5-year analytical
reports cover? If a state is on a
5-year cycle it will include 5 sub-cycles. If
it is on a 7-year cycle it will include the 5 most current sub-cycles. How are you determining how many and who the
owners are to include in the National Woodland Owners Survey (NWOS)? The NWOS is being collected
on an annual basis and the sample is drawn from the previous years
plot owners. Who is performing the National Woodland Owner
Survey now? The National lead is
Brett Butler of the USFS Northern Research Station located in
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USDA Forest Service - SRS- Forest Inventory and Analysis
Last Modified: Thursday, 18 August 2011 at 10:48:55 CDT
