This executive summary summarizes the results of the seventh inventory of the forests of Southern New England, defined as Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, conducted by the USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program. Previous inventories were conducted in 2012, 2007, 1998, 1985, 1972, and 1953. Information in this report includes forest context, forest features, forest health, and ecosystem services. There are an estimated 5.2 million acres of forest land across the region: 3.0 million acres in Massachusetts, 1.8 million acres in Connecticut, and 370 thousand acres in Rhode Island. This amount has not changed substantially since the last inventory was completed in 2012. There are 2.5 billion trees on this forest land that have a total volume of 14.2 billion cubic feet. Red maple and eastern white pine are the most common species in terms of both numbers of trees and volume. Nearly half (48.7 percent) of the forest land is classified as the oak-hickory forest type group. A detailed interactive report is available at https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-RB-125-INT, and supplemental information, including (1) tables summarizing quality assurance, (2) a core set of tabular estimates for forest resources, and (3) user and database guides for P2 and P2+ protocols, can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-RB-125.

People enjoy a variety of ecosystem services, or benefits, from forests, including water purification, recreation, income from tourism, timber products, and the cultural and economic benefits from hunting, fishing, and gathering (Shvidenko et al. 2005). Across the Northern United States, growing human populations will place increased service demands on forests for the foreseeable future. The type, magnitude, and stability of future services from northern forests will depend in part on the level of biological diversity in those forests.

The fourth full annual inventory of Minnesota's forest reports 17.6 million acres of forest land with an average live tree volume of 1,156 cubic feet per acre. Aspen is the most predominant forest type in Minnesota, making up 28 percent of the total area. Net growth exceeds removals in the State resulting in a growth to removals ratio (G/R) of 1.7, meaning that forest land is accumulating volume. Fragmentation and parcelization, aging forest cover, as well as threats from native and nonnative pests, are major issues that will impact the future of Minnesota's forests. Information from the National Woodland Owners Survey is also presented in this report. A detailed interactive report is available at https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-RB-123-INT, and supplemental information, including (1) tables summarizing quality assurance, (2) a core set of tabular estimates for a variety of forest resources, and (3) user and database guides for P2 and P2+ protocols, can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-RB-123.

Assessing a map's accuracy and efficacy requires careful consideration and calculation of a comprehensive set of measures, particularly when characteristics in geospatial datasets may be used for addressing multiple objectives. We describe a map accuracy assessment framework for categorical geospatial data over large areas that utilizes site-specific (plot-pixel), non-site specific (area estimates), and comparative accuracy (spatial and statistical distributions) methods. This comprehensive framework spans the range of approaches applied in most other studies, maximizing opportunities for both within- and between-study comparisons. The analysis framework incorporated recommended good practices for sampling design, response design, analysis protocols, and design-based inference for providing rigorous estimates of accuracy and precision. Further partitioning of disagreement allows users to assess the relative importance of spatial location versus total abundance of map classes to map error; we introduced a ratio of allocation disagreement to quantity disagreement for comparing relative importance of each across datasets. Assessment of fuzzy membership with linguistic scales may have minimal effect on overall accuracy, but can provide substantial improvement in user's accuracy and producer's accuracy for uncommon classes. We adapted non-site specific approaches to provide metrics and insights into spatial variability of map accuracy of thematic classes. Comparing estimates based on reference data and co-located samples of map data may reveal potential issues with reference data. We demonstrated example applications all components of the assessment framework for thematic maps of early successional forest and other land cover classes across the western Great Lakes region, USA.

ABSTRACTThe American Woodcock Conservation Plan calls for halting and reversing declines of American woodcock (Scolopax minor) populations through creation and management of early successional forest (ESF). Counts of displaying male woodcock along routes of the American woodcock singing‐ground survey (SGS) are used to assess regional population status and trends, and there is a need to assess whether SGS routes represent the region. We assessed whether individual SGS routes (330‐m buffers) in the Boreal‐Hardwood and Prairie‐Hardwood Transitions of Minnesota, USA represented land covers within local landscapes, defined using simulated 10‐minute blocks, and whether the routes, in aggregate, represented land covers of our study region. Our land covers included non‐forest classes, age‐based ESF (≤20 years), and persisting classes for deciduous‐mixed and evergreen forests and woody wetlands. We found that the median value of mean absolute differences (MAD) between percentages for route buffer and block cover classes was 3.78 percentage points. Twenty‐two of 81 (27%) route buffers had MAD values ≥5 percentage points. Within Minnesota, more of these routes (19 of 22) occurred in the Boreal‐Hardwood Transition than in the Prairie‐Hardwood Transition. Relative to local landscapes, route buffers most frequently and strongly under‐represented open water, barren land, evergreen ESF, persisting woody wetlands, and woody wetland ESF and over‐represented developed land and grassland‐pasture. When we compared routes in aggregate to our study region, the magnitude of percentage point differences for individual covers did not exceed 5, except for open water. Given the relatively small differences we observed, we conclude that SGS routes well represent land covers within our study region. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.

Creation and management of early successional forest (ESF) is needed to halt and reverse declines of bird species dependent on pioneering plant species or young forests. ESF-dependent bird species require specific structural forest classes and are sensitive to forest age (a surrogate for forest structure), patch size, proximity to patch edges, and the juxtaposition of forest age classes. To date, ESF conservation plans have relied on spatially inexplicit data, lacking patch and landscape metrics, to set habitat goals and to track habitat trends. In a previous study, we used Landsat time series stacks and a vegetation-change tracker algorithm to track forest canopy disturbances and subsequent regrowth from 1990 to 2009 across the Upper Great Lakes Young Forest Initiative region. Based on canopy disturbance histories, we assigned forest age classes to forest classes of the National Land Cover Database of 2011. In the present study, we used this spatial product to assess areas, patch and edge metrics, and land protection statuses of deciduous-mixed forest and woody wetland age classes. We defined ESF using four 5-year-age classes (1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20 years old) and their aggregate (1-20 years old) whereas forest >20 years old was referred to as 'persisting'. Aggregated across 5-year-age classes, ESF of deciduous-mixed forest covered 3.4% and 0.9% of Bird Conservation Regions (BCR) 12 (Boreal Hardwood Transition) and 23 (Prairie Hardwood Transition), respectively, whereas woody wetland ESF constituted 1.0% and 0.2% of the same BCRs. For both deciduous-mixed forest and woody wetlands, ESF often occurred in patches >= 1 ha, but most ESF also occurred near patch edges created by adjacencies with persisting forest. Most ESF tell on lands with an unprotected or unknown protection status regardless of forest class. Regionally, ESF covered less area, occurred in smaller patches and nearer to edges, and more often fell on lands of unprotected or unknown protection status in BCR 23 than in BCR 12. Our results advance ESF conservation by providing insight into spatial characteristics that influence habitat quality and by establishing a baseline for habitat management planning and monitoring. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The National Report on Sustainable Forests—2015 relies on Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators (CI greatest proportion of species with decreasing trends compared to those with increasing trends occurred in oak forests of the southern Appalachians, pine and northern hardwood forests of the upper Midwest and Great Lakes, and montane and arid high plains systems in the intermountain West. Between 1966 and 2011, about 19% of forest-associated bird species increased in populations and 20% decreased. Decliners include species associated with early successional or wetland habitats. Some generalist bird species and some that favor dead trees as foraging and nesting substrates have increased. Results for all nine indicators are presented in the poster.

A map of forest canopy disturbance was generated for Michigan, Wisconsin, and most of Minnesota using 42 Landsat time series stacks (LTSS) and a vegetation change tracker (VCTw) algorithm. Corresponding winter imagery was used to reduce commission errors of forest disturbance by identifying areas of persistent snow cover. The resulting disturbance age map was classed into 5-year age classes and then used to attribute age to forested pixels within the National Land Cover Database of 2011. Overall map classification accuracy was 84.9 percent when using Forest Inventory and Analysis data as reference. User's and producer's accuracies were high for persistent forest, nonforest, and water, but low for disturbed forest 5-year age classes, likely due to rarity of forest canopy disturbance on the landscape and confusion among 5-year age classes in both map and reference data sets.

Forest ecosystem services (ES) are linked to sustaining human well-being. Recognizing an inappropriate economic valuation of ecosystem properties and processes, many ecologists, economists, and political scientists have pushed for an increasing awareness and appreciation of ES. Many definitions of ES include both direct and indirect benefits humans derive from ecosystem properties or processes. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) typology classifies ES into four categories: provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services; this framework enables linkages between Northern Research Station Forest Inventory and Analysis (NRS-FIA) research activities and specific services within MA categories.. A subset of those ES for which additional information is needed will be addressed in a proposed NRS-FIA ES science team.

Forest restoration intended to reduce the overabundance of dense vegetation can be at odds with wildlife habitat conservation, particularly for species of wildlife that are strongly associated with structurally diverse forests with dense canopies. The fisher (Pekania pennanti), a mesopredator that occurs in mid-elevation forests of the southern Sierra Nevada, is such a species and managers are challenged to address fuel accumulations while at the same time maintaining sufficient habitat. We were interested in whether fishers tolerate the amount of management-related disturbance that fire ecologists predict will be sufficient to reduce the severity and spread rate of fires. To address this question we related an index of relative fisher abundance to data on the amount of each sample area that has been affected by one or more forms of disturbance. These are forms of forest management associated with either restoration activities (e.g., thinning, prescribed fire) or timber harvest (e.g., clear cutting, selection harvest). We used scat detection dogs to determine the relative abundance of scats in each of 15, 14 km(2) hexagonal sample areas that were sampled twice a year for 4 years. These data were used to classify each sample area as either low, moderate or high relative abundance of fishers. We also summarized for each of the sample areas the total number of hectares (including overlap) affected by management activities each year, and generated a 3-year running average. The areas exhibiting the highest use by fishers had an average of 36.7 hectares per year affected by ground-disturbing activities. Given that each sample area was 1400 hectares, this suggests that fishers consistently occupy at the highest rate of use places where an average of 2.6% of the area has been disturbed per year. This translates to an average of 7.4 ha of disturbance/year/km(2) (47.1 acres of disturbance/year/mi(2)). This is more disturbance than was predicted to be necessary to treat forests to reduce fire spread rate and severity in the southern Sierra Nevada, but less than predicted to be necessary by fire models for other geographic locations. Our work suggests that it may be possible to implement restorative treatments at an extent and rate that achieves fire modeling goals and does not affect occupancy by fishers. Implementation of such an approach, however, should also consider protection of large trees (conifers and hardwoods) used as resting and denning sites and account for the maintenance of habitat connectivity. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Wildlife management often hinges upon an accurate assessment of population density. Although undeniably useful, many of the traditional approaches to density estimation such as visual counts, livetrapping, or markrecapture suffer from a suite of methodological and analytical weaknesses. Rare, secretive, or highly mobile species exacerbate these problems through the reality of small sample sizes and movement on and off study sites. In response to these difficulties, there is growing interest in the use of non-invasive survey techniques, which provide the opportunity to collect larger samples with minimal increases in effort, as well as the application of analytical frameworks that are not reliant on large sample size arguments. One promising survey technique, the use of scat detecting dogs, offers a greatly enhanced probability of detection while at the same time generating new difficulties with respect to non-standard survey routes, variable search intensity, and the lack of a fixed survey point for characterizing non-detection. In order to account for these issues, we modified an existing spatially explicit, capturerecapture model for camera trap data to account for variable search intensity and the lack of fixed, georeferenced trap locations. We applied this modified model to a fisher (Martes pennanti) dataset from the Sierra National Forest, California, and compared the results (12.3?fishers/100?km2) to more traditional density estimates. We then evaluated model performance using simulations at 3 levels of population density. Simulation results indicated that estimates based on the posterior mode were relatively unbiased. We believe that this approach provides a flexible analytical framework for reconciling the inconsistencies between detector dog survey data and density estimation procedures. (C) 2011 The Wildlife Society.

This archive contains research data collected and/or funded by Forest Service Research and Development (FS R&D), U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is a resource for accessing both short and long-term FS R&D research data, which includes Experimental Forest and Range data. It is a way to both preserve and share the quality science of our researchers.