Statewide Wood Supply Analysis
Downscaled Forest Inventory and Accessibility Analysis for New Mexico
Steve Bassett
Spatial Analyst, The Nature Conservancy
Santa Fe, NM
Statewide Wood Supply Analysis
New Mexico’s forests are in danger:
•
Disease & Insects
•
Drought
•
Catastrophic Fire
A healthy forest products industry can help save the forests.
Data is needed to motivate investment in industry capacity:
•
Wood supply inventory (how much & where)
•
Transportation feasibility to processing facilities
Wood Supply Questions
How much is there?
(standing inventory)
Alan Eckert
How much is in places where
forest work is possible?
Brent Racher
How much of it is accessible
from processing facilities?
Alan Eckert
Existing Research
Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program (USFS)
NM’s Forest Resources, 2008-2012
•
Both of these are great resources. Derived from FIA point samples.
•
Because we need much more data to answer our questions we
developed a methodology to downscale the FIA data.
Middle Rio Grande Wood Supply Analysis
•
First attempt to downscale FIA data and evaluate accessibility.
•
Expanded study area and refined methods for current analysis.
Methods
Team of folks from the forest industry.
•
Framed the specific questions we wanted to answer.
•
Identified cities with existing or proposed processing infrastructure.
Many thanks to: Brent Racher, Kim Kostelnik, Laura McCarthy
Downscaled inventory and accessibility analysis.
Not an availability analysis. (Actual harvest volumes.)
Methods: Downscaled Inventory
Forest Inventory from the FIA (Estimates for Counties)
•
Sawlogs (>11in dbh, ft3)
•
Small Diameter (5–11in dbh, ft3)
•
Other Biomass (<5in dbh, short tons)
Forest Type Data (Aspen, Ponderosa Pine, PJ, etc.)
Basal Area Data
FIA Estimates
Forest Type
Basal Area
Methods: Access Constraints
Wilderness and Roadless Designation
Steep Slopes
Far from Existing Roads
Wilderness & Roadless
Wilderness & Roadless
Close to Existing Roads
Methods: Accessibility Analysis
Road Data
Facility Location
Service Areas
Road Network
Facilities
Distance to Facility
Methods: Accessible Product
Inventory summaries for 10 miles rings up to 100 miles.
Land Ownership, Forest Type
Distance to Facility
Sawlogs Per Acre
Results (100 miles)
Total Sawlogs
Total Small Diameter
Total Other Biomass
Results: Ruidoso
Results: Ruidoso