Indiana's forests in 1998

Abstract

Comparisons between the most recent inventory and updated previous inventories for area and volume compare 1986 with 1998. Comparisons for growth, mortality, and removals compare 1986 with 1997.FIA staff located in St. Paul, Minnesota, involved in the fourth inventory of

Indiana's forests 1999-2003 (Part A)

“…Now that all panels have been measured, each will be remeasured approximately every 5 years. Previous inventories of Indiana' s forest resources were completed in 1950, 1967, 1986, and 1998(Hutchison 1956, Schmidt et al 2000, Smith and Golitz 1988, Spencer 1969, Spencer et al 1990.…”

“…However, for the comparisons to be valid, the procedures used in the two inventories must be similar. As a result of our ongoing efforts to improve the efficiency and reliability of the inventory, several changes in procedures and definitions have been made since the last Indiana inventory in 1998 (Schmidt et al 2000). Although these changes will have little impact on statewide estimates of forest area, timber volume, and tree biomass, they may significantly impact plot classification variables such as forest type and stand-size class (especially county level estimates).…”

“…Although these changes will have little impact on statewide estimates of forest area, timber volume, and tree biomass, they may significantly impact plot classification variables such as forest type and stand-size class (especially county level estimates). For estimating growth, removals, and mortality, the 1998 inventory (Schmidt et al 2000) was processed using estimation/summary routines for the 1999-2003 inventory. Although these changes allow limited comparison of inventory estimates among separate inventories in this report, it is inappropriate to directly compare all portions of the 1999-2003 data with those published for earlier inventories.…”

Compensating for missing plot observations in forest inventory estimation

“…Data were obtained for FIA plots measured in each of the two most recent periodic inventories of Indiana: 1986 (Smith and Golitz 1988) and 1998 (Schmidt et al 2000). For the 1986 inventory, FIA plots consisted of 1 0-point clusters of variable-radius subplots, while for the 1998 inventory, plots consisted of clusters of four fixed-radius subplots.…”