West Virginia's Forests 2008

Abstract

The first full annual inventory of West Virginia's forests reports 12.0 million acres of forest land or 78 percent of the State's land area. The area of forest land has changed little since 2000. Of this land, 7.2 million acres (60 percent) are held by family forest owners. The current growing-stock inventory is 25 billion cubic feet-12 percent more than in 2000-and averages 2,136 cubic feet per acre. Yellow-poplar continues to lead in volume followed by white and chestnut oaks. Since 2000, the saw log portion of growing-stock volume has increased by 23 percent to 88 billion board feet. In the latest inventory, net growth exceeded removals for all major species. Detailed information on forest inventory methods and data quality estimates is included in a DVD at the back of this report. Tables of population estimates and a glossary are also included. AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to thank West Virginia's inventory crew members over the 2004-2008 inventory cycle:

A regeneration indicator for Forest Inventory and Analysis: history, sampling, estimation, analytics, and potential use in the midwest and northeast United States

“…Landscape-level regeneration results are available for Pennsylvania (McCaskill et al 2013;McWilliams et al 1995McWilliams et al , 2007. General findings using traditional FIA variables are available in state resource reports including those for Virginia (Rose 2009) and West Virginia (Widmann et al 2012). Shirer and Zimmerman (2010) …”

“…• Exclusion of fire (Brose et al 2012(Brose et al , 2013 • Lack of regeneration management actions (Marquis 1994) • Poor cutting practices (Nyland 1998(Nyland , 2002 • Multiple owner objectives (Butler 2008) • Lack of management planning (Butler 2008) • High ungulate populations relative to agriculture food crops (Marquis and Brenneman 1981) • Forest fragmentation, e.g., patch size and connectivity (Allen et al 2013) It is important to note that not all anthropogenic factors have a negative influence. Positive anthropogenic factors include tree planting, competing vegetation control, and other management treatments to encourage desirable reproduction and limit negative abiotic and biotic factors.…”

Seasons in the Woods---Exploring Whether Seminar Attendance Is Influenced When Landowners Are Involved in Topic Selection

“…This lack of expertise was identified West Virginia by the 2013 National Woodland Owner Survey, 2013, as only 5% of West Virginia woodland owners have attended a workshop related to forestry in the last five years. As outreach educators in West Virginia, this become relevant as West Virginia (WV) is the third most forested state with 78% of the land being forested and of this, family forest owners account for 60% of the ownership (Widmann et al, 2008). Woodland ownership in West Virginia is mostly joint ownership (60%), individual ownership is 29% and family partnerships are 11%.…”

Comparing the Educational Preferences and Management Roles of West Virginia's Male and Female Woodland Owners

“…Women compromise a substantial sub-population of forest land owners (Warren, 2003) and could be an important sub-population of the non-industrial private forest owner population to target as Butler (2008) calls for. Of the approximate 243,000 family forest owners in West Virginia (Widmann et al, 2012) 19,000 of them are women who are sole owners (Butler, Miles, & Hansen, 2013). When the reported 21,000 jointly owned forest parcels (Butler, et al, 2013) in the state are considered, 40,000 of these properties include women decision makers (Butler, et al, 2013).…”