Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Extending and Intensifying the FIA Inventory of Down Forest Fuels: Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Informally Refereed

Abstract

The sampling design for the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service allows intensification of fuel inventory sampling in areas of ?special interest? and implementation of fuel sampling protocol by non-FIA personnel. The objective of this study is to evaluate the contribution of sampling intensification/extension toward furthering multiscale fire science investigations in two case study areas. In the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan, adoption of FIA?s fuel sampling protocols increased inventory efficiencies while linking local fuel estimates to the system of FIA plots. In Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area, results indicate that 100- and 1,000-hr fuel loadings in wilderness blowdown areas may be twice those of the surrounding forest ecosystem. Both case studies illustrate the potential for the FIA program to provide estimates of fuels and facilitate local fire science initiatives and fuel inventories.

Parent Publication

Citation

Woodall, Christopher W.; Leutscher, Bruce. 2005. Extending and Intensifying the FIA Inventory of Down Forest Fuels: Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. In: Proceedings of the fifth annual forest inventory and analysis symposium; 2003 November 18-20; New Orleans, LA. Gen. Tech. Rep. WO-69. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. 222p.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/14290