NE-FIA WEB PAGE
url: www.fs.fed.us/ne/fia/
What will you find on our page?
News Archive
Program Manager’s Newsletter: A quarterly update of activities for the Northeast
Status of Statewide Inventories: Summary of information about inventories in each of our 13 states including;
start dates for the annual inventory, dates of previous inventories, and links to results from our current inventories
Methodology
Annual Inventory Design: Provides information about our inventory design including: phase 1 (remote sensing),
phase 2 (ground sampling) and phase 3 (forest health monitoring)
Common Terms Defined: List of definitions used in FIA reports
Data Collection
Field Progress Maps by State: Shows percentage of plots complete on a state and county basis. Maps are
updated monthly
Field Guides: Presents field guides used over the last 3 years (available for printing)
Field equipment: Describes the equipment used by field crews
Statewide Results
Summary Statistics and Data Tables: Provides highlights from reports and estimates of forest and timberland
area, board-foot and cubic-foot volumes, biomass, and growth from our most recent inventories (includes sampling
errors for all estimates)
GIS / Spatial Statistics
GIS and Spatial Statistics in FIA: Describes some of the ways that these tools have been used to generate new
products or enhance existing FIA products
Key Concepts in Use: Provides examples in several areas (Geostatistics, Landscape Ecology, Photo-interpreted
maps, and Species Importance Maps)
Species Importance Maps: Representations of our predictions of species importance at the state level.
Geostatistics Workshop: How to use geostatistics with FIA data
Publications: A partial list of NE-FIA publications available to the public
Special Studies
Forest Health Monitoring: Began in the Northeast in 1991 to monitor the long-term status and health of the forest
National Woodland Owner Survey: Describes demographic and socioeconomic factors relating to private
forest land ownership.
Forest Resource Use: A series of studies designed to determine the impacts that removals of forest products have
on forest resources
Pennsylvania Regeneration Study: A pilot study to assess regeneration adequacy using FIA sample plot
locations in Pennsylvania
Landscape Dynamics: Continuing studies on the extent to which increasing proximity to human development
affects biodiversity
Delaware River Basin Study: A Study focusing on soil depletion, net primary productivity, water quality and
ecosystem dynamics within the Delaware River Basin (13,539 square miles in DE, NJ, NY, and PA)
Links: Useful links to other government agencies, state forestry organizations, libraries and search engines
Contact: Eric Wharton, Northeastern Research Station, (610-557-4052, ewharton@fs.fed.us)
Where can you go to get information about the national FIA program and other FIA units?
url: fia.fs.fed.us
What you will find:
Links to all FIA Units
Links to general information including : Program overview, fact sheets, data collection methods,
FIA data availability, FIA publications and reports, FIA business documents
Links to RPA assessments
Links to online databases
Where can you go to generate tables of estimates or download inventory data?
url: ncrs2.fs.fed.us/4801/fiadb/fim17/wcfim17.asp
Products that are available:
Mapmaker version 1.7
The user inputs the following information:
1) geographic area of interest (state/county retrieval or radius retrieval)
2) attribute of interest (timberland area, number of trees, growing-stock volume, etc.)
3) optional filters (for restricting the query to a specific ownership, species, etc.)
4) classification variables to be used for columns and rows
and the web application generates the resulting table. If the user selects County or Congressional District as the row
variable a shaded county map is generated.
2002 Resource Planning Act (RPA) Forest Resource Assessment Draft Tables and RPA table
generation programs
Links to 51 tables of forest statistics for the United States including estimates of forest area, timber volume, growth,
removals and mortality. Links to several tablemaker programs including RPA and RPA Timber Products Ouput (TPO)
and RPA Fuel Reduction Treatment Opportunity.
Data available for downloading:
FIADB data files (fuzzed and swapped latitude and longitude)
RPA 2002 data files (latitude and longitude zeroed out)
Preliminary interpretation of the Privacy Amendment: H.R.3423 Department of the Interior and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act, 2000 (November 17, 1999) indicated that we could no longer provide approximate plot locations.
We may also not be able to break down private ownership into smaller classes (Corporate, Non-governmental
conservation/natural resource organizations, Un-incorporated local partnership/association/club, Native American,
Individual, Undifferentiated private). As a result, the RPA dump files contain zero for latitude, longitude and forindcd.
FIADB files have recently been updated with fuzzed, swapped and rounded latitude and longitude. All private land
ownership has been lumped into code 46 (undifferentiated private).
Product Documentation:
FIADB Users Guide
Forest Inventory Mapmaker Users Guide (PDF)
Forest Inventory Mapmaker Users Guide (RTF)
Tutorial for Forest Inventory Mapmaker Program
Contact: Pat Miles, North Central Research Station (651-649-5146, pmiles@fs.fed.us)
Where can you go to get information about FIA Spatial Data Services?
url: www.fs.fed.us/ne/fia/spatial/index_ss.html
It has been FIA policy to not release exact coordinates for sample locations, both to protect the privacy of landowners, as
well as to protect the long term integrity of the FIA plots. This policy was incorporated into law through a modification
of the Food Security Act of 1985 (7 U.S.C. 2276(d)). FIA remains committed to enabling our customers to achieve their
analytical objectives. One of the ways we are doing this is through the operation of a national FIA Spatial Data Services
center. When a customer needs information that requires exact coordinates, we perform the analysis and return data to
the customer that both meets their needs and follows the confidentiality laws set by Congress. We also provide a facility
where a user may come to use FIA data, under appropriate security conditions, and generate derived products which do
not violate the confidentiality law.
Contact: Elizabeth LaPoint, Northeastern Research Station (610-557-4049, elapoint@fs.fed.us)