scholarly journals Estimating Ownerships and Parcels of Nonindustrial Private Forestland in Massachusetts

2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. Kittredge ◽  
Anthony W. D'Amato ◽  
Paul Catanzaro ◽  
Jennifer Fish ◽  
Brett Butler
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Forest Inventory ◽  
Property Tax ◽  
Forest Service ◽  
The State ◽  
Forest Inventory And Analysis ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Forest Service ◽  
Suburban Development ◽  
Private Forestland

Abstract Woodland ownership for three regions of Massachusetts is estimated using property tax assessor data. These data are nonspatially explicit and are based on commercial, industrial, residential, or other activity rather than actual land cover. A heuristic was used to aggregate similar parcels to provide an estimate of actual landownership. The estimated average statewide ownership is 17.9 ac, and when properties less than 10 ac are excluded, the average rises to 42.5 ac. The median ownership varies from east to west in the state across the spectrum of suburban development radiating from the metropolitan Boston area, with the median being 4.8, 7.8, and 8.6 ac in the eastern, central, and western part of the state, respectively. These results are compared with ownership estimates generated by the US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis.

scholarly journals A Regularized Raking Estimator for Small-Area Mapping from Forest Inventory Surveys

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1045 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas N. Nagle ◽  
Todd A. Schroeder ◽  
Brooke Rose
Keyword(s):  
Forest Inventory ◽  
Small Area ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Previous Method ◽  
Ancillary Data ◽  
Forest Inventory And Analysis ◽  
Survey Techniques ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Forest Service ◽  
Single Set

In this paper, we propose a new estimator for creating expansion factors for survey plots in the US Forest Service (USFS) Forest Inventory and Analysis program. This estimator was previously used in the GIS literature, where it was called Penalized Maximum Entropy Dasymetric Modeling. We show here that the method is a regularized version of the raking estimator widely used in sample surveys. The regularized raking method differs from other predictive modeling methods for integrating survey and ancillary data, in that it produces a single set of expansion factors that can have a general purpose which can be used to produce small-area estimates and wall-to-wall maps of any plot characteristic. This method also differs from other more widely used survey techniques, such as GREG estimation, in that it is guaranteed to produce positive expansion factors. Here, we extend the previous method to include cross-validation, and provide a comparison to expansion factors between the regularized raking and ridge GREG survey calibration.

scholarly journals A Method for Evaluating Fixed-Radius Plot Size When Sampling Western Juniper Seedlings and Saplings

2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 207-208
Author(s):  
David L. Azuma ◽  
Larry Bednar
Keyword(s):  
Forest Inventory ◽  
Forest Service ◽  
Usda Forest Service ◽  
Forest Inventory And Analysis ◽  
Size Selection ◽  
Western Juniper ◽  
Plot Size ◽  
Fixed Radius ◽  
Selection For

Abstract This note outlines a method for evaluating plot size selection for an inventory of western juniper woodlands in eastern Oregon. The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the USDA Forest Service in Portland, Oregon, used this method to evaluate several plot sizes to measure seedlings and saplings in the 1998 inventory of eastern Oregon. By choosing a 5 m radius plot, the probability of tallying no seedlings or saplings on four subplots is less than 10% for the three sample densities (0.01, 0.02, and 0.03 trees/m2) used. West. J. Appl. For. 17(4):207–208.

scholarly journals Separating Duff and Litter for Improved Mass and Carbon Estimates

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Chojnacky ◽  
Michael Amacher ◽  
Michael Gavazzi
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Forest Inventory ◽  
Mass Ratio ◽  
Forest Inventory And Analysis ◽  
The Us ◽  
Calculated Mass ◽  
Density Values ◽  
Carbon Load ◽  
Forest Soil Organic Matter

Abstract Mass and carbon load estimates, such as those from forest soil organic matter (duff and litter), inform forestry decisions. The US Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program systematically collects data nationwide: a down woody material protocol specifies discrete duff and litter depth measurements, and a soils protocol specifies mass and carbon of duff and litter combined. Sampling duff and litter separately via the soils protocol would increase accuracy of subsequent bulk density calculations and mass and carbon estimates that use them. At 57 locations in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, we measured depth, mass, and carbon of duff and litter separately. Duff depth divided by total depth varied from 20% to 56%, duff was 1–4 times denser than litter, and the calculated median carbon-to-mass ratio for hardwood duff (0.37) was less than that for litter (0.45). Using FIA depth measurements, we calculated mass from (1) our mean density values, (2) a mass versus depth regression model we developed, and (3) published density values. Model mass calculations were lower than those using our mean densities, possibly because the latter ignore density differences with layer thickness. Our model could provide valuable mass and carbon estimates if fully developed with future FIA data (duff and litter separated).

scholarly journals The Development of an Organizational Safety Culture in the United States Forest Service

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Flores ◽  
Emily Haire
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Safety Culture ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
The United States ◽  
Forest Service ◽  
Organizational Safety ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Forest Service ◽  
Core Value ◽  
Organizational Safety Culture

Abstract For over 100 years, the US Forest Service (USFS) has developed initiatives to improve safety outcomes. Herein we discuss the engineered solutions used from 1910 through 1994, when the agency relied on physical science to address the hazards of wildland fire suppression. We then interpret safety initiatives of the subsequent 25 years, as the USFS incorporated social science perspectives both into its understanding of emergency fire incidents and its mitigation of vulnerabilities across all fields of work. Tracing the safety programs using a historical sociology approach, we identify, within the agency’s narrative, three recent developments in its organizational safety culture: cultural awareness, cultural management, and cultural reorganization. This article describes how the development of top-down safety initiatives are questioned and shaped by employees who actively influence the trajectory of a safety culture in the USFS. Study Implications: Safety is a core value of the US Forest Service (USFS), and several safety initiatives, along with employee feedback over the years, have shaped the organizational culture of the agency. To build a robust and world-renowned safety culture in high-risk industries, managers require an understanding of the origins of their organization’s current safety culture. Using a critical social science analytical lens, we discuss how safety initiatives and the development of a safety culture position organizations such as the USFS to move away from reactionary safety initiatives and anchor to employee safety as a core value in order to absorb external shocks, such as rapidly changing ecosystems, development in the wildland urban interface, and larger and more intense wildfires.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document