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US Forest ServiceThe Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Southern Research Station’s (SRS) Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) research work unit and cooperating State forestry agencies conduct annual forest inventories of resources in the 13 Southern States (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia), the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In order to provide more frequent and nationally consistent information on America’s forest resources, all research stations and their respective FIA work units conduct annual surveys with a common sample design. These surveys are mandated by law through the Agricultural Research Extension and Education Reform Act of 1998 (Farm Bill).
The primary objective in conducting these inventories is to gather the multiresource information needed to formulate sound forest policies, provide information for economic development, develop forest programs, and provide a scientific basis to monitor forest ecosystems. These data are used to provide an overview of forest resources that may include, but is not limited to, forest area, forest ownership, forest type, stand structure, timber volume, growth, removals, mortality, management activity, down woody material, carbon storage and sequestration, and invasive species. The information presented is applicable at the State and survey unit level; although it provides the background for more intensive studies of critical situations, it is not designed to reflect resource conditions at small scales.
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