ECOFIA White Paper

An Ecological Approach for the Inventory, Analysis, and Monitoring of Forests in the United States

USDA Forest Service Research Forest Inventory and Analysis Program, ECOFIA Steering Group, ***DRAFT COPY*** March 24, 1994

PURPOSE

The need for forest inventory information from a broad, ecosystem perspective has been addressed in documents such as "A Blueprint for FIA [Forest Inventory and Analysis] Research and Vision for the Future" (USDA Forest Service 1993) and the "Report of the Blue Ribbon Panel on FIA" (American Forests Council 1993). This paper outlines an initiative to provide national direction for improving the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Research, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program's responsiveness for taking an ecological approach for the inventory, analysis, and monitoring of all forested lands. This national direction will improve consistency and coordination among FIA units and related efforts. The adoption of ecosystem management as a guiding philosophy by the Forest Service (Kessler et al. 1992, Overbay 1992) and the broader forestry community provides a strong basis for this initiative. The objectives of this paper are to:

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Adopt an Ecosystem Perspective

The essence of this initiative is a paradigm shift from viewing the FIA program as one that focuses on specific commodity resources (e.g., timber) to one that considers the composition, structure, and function of the vegetation components of forest ecosystems. While FIA has been gradually moving from a forest product to a multi-resource focus for the last 10-15 years (see Rudis 1991), it is time to accelerate to an even more holistic approach. An inventory strategy that places primary emphasis on the forest's ecological components and relationships will yield information usable in a variety of ways for a wide array of values--including but not limited to various resources and commodities.

Stay Flexible

Because ecosystems are dynamic, complex, and poorly understood, movement towards ecological analysis is an on-going, adaptive process. We advocate a flexible approach that continually reassesses information needs, incorporates other disciplinary perspectives, and responds to new scientific information and society's changing values. Such an approach involves measuring basic forest attributes that underlie ecosystem processes.

Build on Strengths and Emphasize Coordination

Demands for new and complex kinds of information to support ecosystem analysis and management are overwhelming, and the array of possible approaches is immense. Tight budgets and concurrent efforts by other agencies and organizations dictates that FIA develop an ecologically-based inventory system that builds on our established strengths and emphasizes coordination with related inventory and monitoring efforts.

CURRENT ROLE

Historically, FIA has emphasized the inventory, classification, and analysis of existing vegetation within physical and social contexts (see USDA Forest Service 1992 for an overview of the FIA program). With more than one-half century of experience, the FIA program has built on strengths to establish its niche within the environmental science community. Some existing FIA strengths that will guide future efforts are:

FUTURE DIRECTION

Taking an ecological approach will require successive refinement and reliance on a strategy of adaptive management. While general guidance has been provided by Congress through legislation, priorities will be modified by FIA's partners. Forest industry, cooperators, research institutions, National Forest System planners, and other stakeholders constitute the FIA program support base. As the system evolves, active encouragement, support, and involvement of nontraditional natural resource and environmental disciplines and organizations will extend FIA's support base toward ecosystem analysis and its concomitant priorities.

Information Needs and Implementation Plan

Information needs for an ecological approach must guide the implementation of this initiative. Identification of ecosystem information needs will require input from, and coordination with, many other sources. Many ecosystem-related activities are on-going at a regional level with individual FIA units. There are several topics that are currently being addressed by one or more FIA units and that could or should be addressed nationally. In addition to internal efforts, other efforts outside of FIA are on-going and their methods and findings need to be incorporated into the FIA program.

Implementation will be considered in three phases. Each phase requires successively greater levels of commitment by FIA and its partners as additional techniques research, data collection, and analyses are developed.

Following are examples of ecological issues that FIA is well-positioned and qualified to address nationally. All of these issues can be characterized in terms of amount, spatial and temporal distribution, and interactions at multiple scales.

Since ecosystems are so complex, it helps to use a simplifying model to adequately characterize them. One developed by Franklin et al. (1981) identifies three primary attributes of ecosystems: composition, structure, and function. Composition has to do with the identification of various elements in the system, and includes species lists and diversity measures. Structure is the physical organization or pattern of a system, and includes the size and distribution patterns of vegetation or stands. Function involves various processes, such as disturbances, succession, and land use transitions. Noss (1990) took these attributes and simplified them further by organizational states. Using this model, examples of biological, social, and physical elements of forest ecosystems that could be addressed by FIA are displayed in Table 1. Similar presentation of such data and analyses could provide the framework for ecological assessments of the nation's forests.

Research and Development Needs

Research plays an essential role in all phases of implementing an ecological approach to inventory and monitoring. Coordination among FIA units, cooperation with other research institutions, and support of allied natural resource agencies and nongovernmental organizations are key elements for all FIA research activities. A greater proportion of FIA resources should be devoted to research and development in the future. FIA should become a recognized authority in techniques for broad-scale inventory and analysis of forest vegetation composition, structure, and processes. The following areas of research deserve high priority.

Sample Design.

Sample design strongly influences FIA's ability to provide relevant information for ecological analyses. Currently, FIA units employ an extensive, photo-based sample design of all land and a field sample of forests from a random or systematic grid of permanent plots. Research activities should be undertaken that consider the possible need for different plot designs for ecosystem analysis; stratification and classification approaches that are ecosystem-based; multi-phase designs that combine spatially explicit data with field plot data; strategies for horizontal "edge-matching" of various sample-based inventories to provide complete geographical coverage; and approaches for aggregating and disaggregating information, and quantifying errors across spatial and temporal scales.

Vegetation Measurement and Classification.

We need to identify efficient and repeatable methods for measuring and quantifying composition, structure, and function of all forest vegetation. New systems for classifying existing vegetation that are ecosystem-based rather than forest product commodity-based should be developed and implemented.

Spatial Analysis and Modeling.
Techniques are needed for characterizing landscape patterns and their dynamics using GIS modeling, remote sensing, and spatial statistics. Research on more efficient and effective ways to combine map-based and sample-based data is another critical need.

Standards for Ecosystem Inventories.

Identification and implementation of national data standards are needed to improve the utility of FIA data for ecosystem analyses.

Biodiversity Assessment.

Development of a conceptual framework, sampling methods, data elements or indicators, and analytical approaches to evaluate biodiversity is a major step needed for ecosystem management and ecological analyses.

Forested Riparian Zones and Wetlands.

Development of sampling designs and analytical methods for regional assessments of streamside forests and other forested wetland communities are needed to provide basic descriptions of these valuable ecosystems.

Human Dimensions.

Humans comprise an integral component of forest ecosystems, and we need inventory data and analyses to better assess the interactions between human and natural systems. Examples include status and condition of rare and endangered habitats, extent of harvest disturbance, human community development in forested areas, tree and forest community establishment in human communities, ownership impacts on landscape fragmentation, and land use transition probabilities over various temporal scales.

ECOFIA Steering Committee

March 1994:

DG Email addresses are below. Example Internet version for Roger Conner is:
FSWA/S=r.conner/ou=S29A@mhs.attmail.com

    Roger Conner          SE-FIA (R.CONNER:S29A)         704-257-4359
    Will McWilliams       NE-FIA (W.MCWILLIAMS:S24A)     610-975-4050
    Renee O'Brien         INT-FIA (R.OBRIEN:S22L02A)     801-625-5371
    Janet Ohmann          PNW (J.OHMANN:S26L07A)         503-321-5859
    Doug Powell, Chair    WO-FIA (D.POWELL:W01C)         202-205-1724
    Vic Rudis             SO-FIA (V.RUDIS:S30L01A)       601-338-3109
    Tom Schmidt           NC-FIA (T.SCHMIDT:S23A)        612-649-5131

LITERATURE CITED

American Forest Council. 1992. Report of the blue ribbon panel on forest inventory and analysis. Presented to U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Chief Robertson on October 10, 1992. Washington, D.C. 9 p.

ECOMAP. 1993. National hierarchical framework of ecological units. Washington, D.C. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 19 p.

Franklin, J.F., K. Cromack, Jr., W. Denison, A. McKee, C. Maser, J. Sedell, F. Swanson, and G. Juday. 1981. Ecological characteristics of old-growth Douglas-fir forests. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PNW-118. Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Portland, OR. 48 p.

Kessler, Winifred B., Hal Salwasser, Charles W. Cartwright, Jr., and James A. Caplan. 1992. New perspectives for sustainable natural resources management. Ecological Applications 2(3): 221-225.

Noss, Reed F. 1990. Indicators for monitoring biodiversity: a hierarchical approach. Conservation Biology 4:355-364.

Overbay, James C. 1992. Ecosystem management. In: Proceedings of a national workshop: Taking An Ecological Approach To Management, April 27-30, 1992, Salt Lake City, UT. USDA Forest Service Watershed and Air Management WO-WSA-3, Washington, DC. p. 3-15.

Rudis, Victor A. 1991. Wildlife habitat, range, recreation, hydrology, and related research using forest inventory and analysis surveys: a 12-year compendium. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Forest Experiment Station GTR SO-84. New Orleans, LA. 61 p.

USDA Forest Service. 1992. Forest Service resource inventories: an overview. Forest Inventory, Economics, and Recreation Research, Washington, DC. 39 p.

USDA Forest Service. 1993. A blueprint for forest inventory and analysis research and vision for the future. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Inventory, Economics, and Recreation Research Program Aid No. 1512. Washington, D.C. 20 p.


TABLE 1.

Examples of elements for forest vegetation inventory and analysis at three organization levels by ecosystem component.

Lower level elements are aggregatable to higher levels of organization.

Level of Ecological Organization and Ecosystem Component

Community/Stand

Species/Population

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Modified for WWW February 17, 1995 by V.Rudis.