rFIA: An R package for estimation of forest attributes with the US Forest Inventory and Analysis database

Stanke, Hunter; Finley, Andrew O.; Weed, Aaron S.; Walters, Brian F.; Domke, Grant M.

doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104664

Cited by 92 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…As such, the FSI is uniquely well suited for applications using data collected in large-scale national forest inventories. To this end, we provide a flexible implementation of the FSI in the publicly available R package, rFIA 60 , for application of the index using data collected by the US Forest Service FIA program.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For brevity, we restricted our analysis to consider the eight most abundant tree species in the western US. We identified the most abundant tree species using the rFIA R package 60 , defining abundance in terms of estimated total number of trees (DBH ≥ 2.54 cm) in the year 2018. We excluded species that exhibit non-tree growth habits (i.e., shrub, subshrub) across portions of the study region.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Precision of point and change estimates can often be improved by combining annual panels within an inventory cycle (i.e., by augmenting current data with data collected previously). We used the simple moving average estimator implemented in the rFIA R package 60 to compute estimates from a series of eight annual panels (i.e., sets of plots remeasured in the same year) ranging from 2011 to 2018. The simple moving average estimator combines information from annual panels with equal weight (i.e., irrespective of time since remeasurement), thereby allowing us to characterize long-term patterns in relative density shifts.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We have implemented computational routines for the FSI in the publicly available R package, rFIA 60 . In addition, all custom code used herein is publicly available in the following permanent GitHub repository: https://github.com/hunter-stanke/Coderepository---NCOMMS-20-20430.…”

Section: Data Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Over half of western United States' most abundant tree species in decline

et al. 2021

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Changing forest disturbance regimes and climate are driving accelerated tree mortality across temperate forests. However, it remains unknown if elevated mortality has induced decline of tree populations and the ecological, economic, and social benefits they provide. Here, we develop a standardized forest demographic index and use it to quantify trends in tree population dynamics over the last two decades in the western United States. The rate and pattern of change we observe across species and tree size-distributions is alarming and often undesirable. We observe significant population decline in a majority of species examined, show decline was particularly severe, albeit size-dependent, among subalpine tree species, and provide evidence of widespread shifts in the size-structure of montane forests. Our findings offer a stark warning of changing forest composition and structure across the western US, and suggest that sustained anthropogenic and natural stress will likely result in broad-scale transformation of temperate forests globally.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Data Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Over half of western United States' most abundant tree species in decline

et al. 2021

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“…Forest inventory data. We analyzed data from the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) database using rFIA, an open source software package that implements statistical practices recommended by the US Forest Service (35,36). We developed queries to estimate the total aboveground carbon and total acreage for every supersection, assessment area, site class, inventory period, and forest type, along with their variances.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic over-crediting in California’s forest carbon offsets program

Badgley

Freeman

Hamman

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Carbon offsets are widely used by individuals, corporations, and governments to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions on the assumption that offsets reflect equivalent climate benefits achieved elsewhere. These climate-equivalence claims depend on offsets providing "additional" climate benefits beyond what would have happened, counterfactually, without the offsets project. Here, we evaluate the design of California's prominent forest carbon offsets program and demonstrate that its climate-equivalence claims fall far short on the basis of directly observable evidence. By design, California's program awards large volumes of offset credits to forest projects with carbon stocks that exceed regional averages. This paradigm allows for adverse selection, which could occur if project developers preferentially select forests that are ecologically distinct from unrepresentative regional averages. By digitizing and analyzing comprehensive offset project records alongside detailed forest inventory data, we provide direct evidence that comparing projects against coarse regional carbon averages has led to systematic over-crediting of 30.0 million tCO2e (90% CI: 20.5 to 38.6 million tCO2e) or 29.4% of the credits we analyzed (90% CI: 20.1 to 37.8%). These excess credits are worth an estimated $410 million (90% CI: $280 to $528 million) at recent market prices. Rather than improve forest management to store additional carbon, California's offsets program creates incentives to generate offset credits that do not reflect real climate benefits.

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Emerald ash borer intensifies harvest regimes on private land

Holt

Smetzer

Borsuk

et al. 2022

Ecological Applications

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Invasive forest insects have significant direct impacts on forest ecosystems and they are also generating new risks, uncertainties, and opportunities for forest landowners. The growing prevalence and inexorable spread of invasive insects across the United States, combined with the fact that the majority of the nation's forests are controlled by thousands of autonomous private landowners, raises an important question: To what extent will private landowners alter their harvest practices in response to insect invasions? Using a quasi‐experimental design, we conducted a causal analysis to investigate the influence of the highly impactful emerald ash borer (EAB) on (1) annual probability of harvest; (2) intensity of harvest; and (3) diameter of harvested trees, for both ash and non‐ash species on private land throughout the Midwest and mid‐Atlantic regions of the United States. We found that EAB detection had a negative impact on annual harvest probability and a positive impact on harvest intensity, resulting in a net increase in harvested biomass. Furthermore, our estimates suggest that EAB detection will influence private landowners to harvest greater quantities of ash, relative to non‐ash species. We also found that harvested trees in EAB‐infested areas had smaller diameters, on average, compared with those unaffected by EAB. These results can help policymakers, forest managers, and extension programs to anticipate and better advise landowners and managers about their options and the associated outcomes for forests.

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rFIA: An R package for estimation of forest attributes with the US Forest Inventory and Analysis database

Cited by 92 publications

References 12 publications

Over half of western United States' most abundant tree species in decline

Over half of western United States' most abundant tree species in decline

Systematic over-crediting in California’s forest carbon offsets program

Emerald ash borer intensifies harvest regimes on private land

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