Forest Inventory and Analysis Tree-Ring Data

The National Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA) conducts a congressionally mandated repeat forest inventory implemented on all lands in the conterminous United States. Forested plots (~125,000 nationwide) are revisited on a 5- or 10-year basis for data collection. As part of baseline protocols on initial visits increment cores were collected. Cores were used for aging stands, determining potential productivity in timber forest types and to quantify growth increment. Except in a portion of the Interior West states (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, UT, WY) increment cores were discarded in the field. Now in re-measurement, increment cores are only taken for ingrowth trees, and continued collection will require active champions.The discovery and development of over 15,000 FIA increment cores for the Interior West, currently ongoing at the Utah State University Dendrochronology Laboratory, will be described. Example applications of the FIA tree-ring data to dendroclimatology, biogeography, and ecology will be given, including comparison to the International Tree-Ring Data Bank. Because the FIA sampling grid is a geographically unbiased sampling design, analyzing increment cores collected on plots requires dendrochronologists to shift their perspective. In this way the FIA tree-ring data provide an opportunity to address novel research questions. We anticipate that in addition to the examples given here, the tree-ring data will also be useful for a large range of research applications such as: training remotely sensed imagery; population-level estimates of growth variability or; unique pairing with other plot-level forest data, among others. This large data archiving and research project is ongoing an we welcome collaborations.