United States

Department of

Agriculture

Forest Service

Southern

Research Station

General Technical

Report SRS–61

Fresh Ideas, Perspectives, and

Protocols Associated with Forest

Inventory and Analysis Surveys:

Graduate Reports, 1974 to July 2001

Victor A. Rudis
Victor A. Rudis, Research Forester, USDA Forest Service,

Southern Research Station, Starkville, MS.

The Author

February 2003

Southern Research Station

P.O.Box 2680

Asheville, NC 28802

The use of trade or firm names in this publication is for reader information and does not

imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of any product or service.
1

Fresh Ideas, Perspectives, and Protocols

Associated with Forest Inventory and

Analysis Surveys: Graduate Reports,

1974 to July 2001

Victor A. Rudis

Abstract

Graduate M.S. theses and Ph.D. dissertations were searched to provide a

body of information associated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture,

Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) database. Authors’

abstracts were included if available in electronic form and published since

1974. Novel technical and nontraditional FIA data uses, as well as the

geographic region of the reported studies, were highlighted in keywords

and annotations. The search yielded the 103 citations included in this

report. Dominating efforts were in economics, Geographic Information

Systems, timber production, and selected States, with a broadening array of

subjects in more recent years. Research institutions in States with regional

FIA survey unit offices granted one-third of the graduate degrees. Providing

an overview of the uses of FIA data in student research, the results show

that a body of knowledge based on the data is evolving, whereas the

distribution of subjects and study regions has been somewhat limited.

Keywords: Bibliography, dissertation, historical synthesis,

interdisciplinary, MRI (multipurpose resource inventory), thesis.

Introduction

The multifaceted role of forests and expanding public

involvement in forestry has led to differing concerns,

measurement priorities, and sometimes opposing opinions

about land use and forest resources. Large landholding

commercial firms and Federal, State, and local public

agencies conduct inventories and monitor changes to obtain

information and make decisions about the resources in their

care. In today’s society, these activities must also satisfy the

integrated information needs of a more involved public.

Forests are not just groups of trees but represent a subtle

balance of esthetics, economics, wildlife, and processes in

which prevailing attitudes determine the context for—and

ultimately the value of—forest resources. Methods to

analyze, inventory, and model forest resources require a

variety of disciplinary perspectives to account for the

complexity of associated issues.

In mature organizations, patterns of work activity tend to

follow a common tradition in terms of how problems are

conceptualized and solved. Cost relative to benefit is of

major concern, particularly among individuals with

established careers. Graduate studies offer opportunities to

pilot test techniques or investigate alternative solutions at

relatively low cost. With the help of university mentors,

graduate students incorporate fresh ideas, new perspectives,

and novel protocols to test important hypotheses or solve

previously intractable problems. Graduate student

approaches to analysis often differ from those of veteran

analysts and offer perspectives outside the conventional

thinking of established organizations.

Solving today’s conflicts concerning land use and forest

resource allocation requires assessments that use a broader

base of information from a range of disciplines and natural

resource perspectives. Abstracts of graduate student reports

offer an important slice of this larger, evolving body of

information. These reports often synthesize the existing

literature, initiate novel approaches, and frequently provide

details for subsequent journal articles. Occasionally,

graduate work also foreshadows new research thrusts or

groundbreaking scientific advances.

Though they publish Masters theses and Ph.D. dissertations,

research institutions do not always enter the abstracts into

traditional citation databases. Graduate student reports may

not always be published outside the institution because the

former student has no further interest in disseminating

results or continuing the research or because the report

documented no significant results. Whereas the findings

may remain important to the larger scientific community,

there is no common knowledge of their existence.

The graduate student reports assembled and categorized

here are those associated with the regional field samplebased forest survey conducted by the U.S. Department of

Agriculture, Forest Service, (USDA Forest Service), Forest

Inventory and Analysis Research Work Unit (FIA). Since

the 1930s, the USDA Forest Service has taken responsibility

for assessing the current conditions and trends in both public

and private forests through the FIA program. The passage of

the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning

Act (RPA) of 1974 [Public Law 93-378 (88 Stat. 476)] and

associated laws in 1978 [Public Law 95-307 (92 Stat. 353)],

mandated that the USDA Forest Service shift inventory and

monitoring efforts from documenting commodity—largely

timber—outputs toward conducting “comprehensive”
2

assessments that also include water, range, recreation, and

wildlife values. The FIA program, while maintaining the

traditional data the Agency has collected and updated over

the past 50 years, can benefit from the fresh ideas and

perspectives of graduate research in efforts to meet society’s

evolving information needs.

This report includes every graduate thesis and dissertation

found by the author and includes the abstracts of graduate

student research associated with the use of FIA data

conducted between 1974, when the RPA was passed, and

July 2001. This compilation is intended for use by beginning

graduate students, new and veteran FIA stakeholders,

university professors, and others interested in forest

inventory data, methods, and analysis. To help readers

determine the usefulness of each report, annotations

reference novel FIA data uses, particularly those associated

with nontraditional subjects such as human influences, range,

recreation, wildlife habitat, and water. I also provided

annotations for studies for which no abstract was available or

for which the use of FIA data was not apparent. I further

assigned keywords to each abstract that categorized uses

relevant to FIA data.

A careful reading of the abstracts and annotations should

prove useful to those considering new approaches to the

analysis of FIA data, retooling the analyses of FIA data for

other issues, establishing new inventory measurements and

analytical approaches, and developing new research

proposals. Shortcuts are often helpful, however. One section

provides the titles of graduate reports sorted by year and

referenced by the author’s surname and citation number.

Titles used reflect the topics selected for graduate study and

the issues, techniques, and terms prevalent at the time of

their completion. To provide another way to look at patterns

of research, I selected keywords for each report based on a

reading of available materials. Another section lists each

entry in the keyword list, followed by reference to the

pertinent abstracts and the two-letter alphabetic State or

survey unit code associated with the source of the FIA

survey data.

Methods

I used UMI Dissertation Services, currently the largest

database of dissertations, as the chief method to locate

abstracts. Other sources included libraries of graduate

forestry schools with on-line access and the Web search

engines AltaVista, Google, and Netscape. I located

additional theses, listed without abstracts but indexed by

subject in the list of forestry theses published by Fox and

DeWolfe (1994).

I limited my queries to on-line bibliography databases,

university libraries, and lists of thesis citations from 1974

through July 2001 and confined my on-line library catalog

searches to universities with graduate forestry programs. To

locate reports, I formed queries using the following search

terms: forest inventory, multipurpose and surveys,

multiresource and survey, regional and forest and surveys,

forest and service and surveys, land and resource and

surveys, land use, FIA and forest, and forest and inventory.

The following section contains 103 citations listed in

alphabetical order by author. I found 70 percent of the

abstracts through UMI® Dissertation Services. These are

coded with the letters DAI (Dissertation Abstracts

International) or MAI (Masters Abstracts International),

followed by volume, issue, year, and reference number.

These abstracts—copied “as is” from the UMI database—

are published both in hard copy and electronically on the

USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station Web site

with permission of ProQuest Information and Learning,

which prohibits further reproduction without permission.

Copies of dissertations may be obtained by addressing

requests to UMI® Dissertation Services, 300 North Zeeb

Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346, (734)–761–7400.

Additional information is available at the UMI Web site at:

http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations.

I have noted in the abstracts when I have used sources other

than UMI for information about graduate reports. Possible

other sources included the text of the full report, paper copy

of the abstract, a subsequent serial publication, or a keyword

index from another source. I annotated information (noted in

brackets) from available information if no electronic

abstract was obtainable or if FIA data uses were not

apparent. When known, I also annotated (in brackets) novel

and nontraditional FIA data uses if this information was not

provided in the abstract.

Citation and Abstract or Annotation

1. Abt, Robert Carroll. 1984. Regional production,

structure, and factor demand in the U.S. lumber

industry. Berkeley, CA: University of California. 106 p.

Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 46, no. 04B (1984): 1012. The U.S. lumber

industry provides an opportunity to analyze the influence of

differences in resource characteristics on production

relationships. Dominance of regional timber supply and

employment issues in forest resource policy provide an

incentive to determine the influence of production

characteristics on factor demand. Regional production and
3

price trends are examined and differences in micro and

macro production relations are investigated. Aggregate

substitution and scale effects are shown to depend on the

relationship between a mill’s efficiency and its response to

output and price changes.

Production characteristics are identified for hardwood,

southern softwood, and western softwood regions. Each

region consists of three contiguous States. State specific

data for 1963-1978 were developed for: (1) output, (2) labor

price and cost, (3) sawlog price and cost, and (4) capital

stock. Capital stock estimates for each State were derived

using a perpetual inventory model, which was consistent

with the Bureau of Labor Statistics national capital stock

series. Translog restricted cost functions and duality theory

were employed to identify regional production

characteristics from pooled State data. Sawlogs and labor

were considered variable inputs, and capital was considered

quasi-fixed.

Results indicated that the underlying production functions in

the three regions were significantly different. The fixedfactor proportions hypothesis did not receive support in any

region. Constant returns to scale was accepted in the

softwood regions, but decreasing returns characterized the

hardwood region. Productivity growth was highest in the

South, while the marginal product of capital was highest in

the West. The effects of production characteristics on factor

demand were examined by decomposing factor demand

change into: (1) output, (2) own-price, (3) cross-price, (4)

capital stock, and (5) time or state of technology

components. This indicated that the relative stability in

factor use over the sample period was due to offsetting

price, substitution and technology effects, rather than fixed

production relationships.

Keywords: Economics, timber production modeling, United

States.

2. Alig, Ralph J. 1984. Forest acreage trends in the

Southeast: econometric analysis and policy simulations.

Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University. 156 p. Ph.D.

dissertation.

Source: DAI 45, no. 09A (1984): 2943. The objective of this

study was to develop a system based on economic criteria

for projecting changes in land use areas. The total land base

was partitioned among three classes of private forest owners

and crop, pasture/range, and urban/other uses in the

Southeastern United States. The fraction of the land base in

an owner/use was hypothesized to be a function of the ratio

of the land rent for that owner/use relative to an average rent

index for all owners/uses. Systems of econometric equations

for the six owner/use classes were estimated by

physiographic region: Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and

Mountains. The data comprised a pooled cross-sectional/

time series, with observations drawn at four time points

from the 21 forest survey units in the Southeast.

Population, personal income, and land commodity incomes

were the major significant variables in the land owner/use

equations. Changes in population and personal income

levels have contributed to a decline in farm forest acreage

and a corresponding increase in miscellaneous private forest

acreage. Projections of forest acreage trends with the

systems of land owner/use equations indicate a continued

drop in farm forest acreage. Miscellaneous private forest

acreage is projected to continue to increase, in part because

of real personal income levels that are forecast to triple by

the year 2040.

Projections of acreage changes for the five major forest

types by ownership in each physiographic region, using a

Markov type model, point to a substantial reduction in

natural pine acreage. Transition probabilities among forest

types were estimated from forest survey remeasurement data

and are conditional with respect to the application of certain

management practices.

The importance of exogenous forces (e.g., population) for

forest acreage trends suggests the need to improve

coordination with land use modeling for other sectors. Also

needed are the integration of forest acreage modeling with

that for forest type transition, timber inventory projection,

and harvest estimation in an interregional framework.

Keywords: Economics, land use, owner, SEFIA.

3. Barlow, Stephen Anthony. 1996. The influence of

urbanization on timber harvest probability in

Mississippi and Alabama. Mississippi State, MS:

Mississippi State University. 56 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: MAI 34, no. 06 (1996): 2275. In the Southern

United States, increased development in traditionally rural

areas is quickly reducing the land base currently used for

forest management. This shift from rural to urban uses

represents a long term removal of productive forest land.

The impact of urbanization on timber harvest probability in

Mississippi and Alabama was investigated in this study.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau were combined with

Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data collected by the

USDA Forest Service. These data were merged using a

Geographic Information System (GIS) to spatially reference

the FIA plots to the demographic data.
4

A binary logit model was estimated to provide a predicted

harvest probability for each FIA plot. This study provides a

methodology to combine available data sources to assist in

the development of a State or regional timber supply model.

[Author used proximity to urban populations, U.S. Census

tracts, FIA distance from roads and distance from urban or

built-up land, and traditional FIA attributes for two FIA

surveys of Alabama and Mississippi.]

Keywords: AL, GIS, harvest probability (plot), MS,

population density, proximity.

4. Barnes, Robert Brooks. 1975. A quantitative evaluation

of winter deer browse in southern New Hampshire

forests. Durham, NH: University of New Hampshire. 96 p.

M.S. thesis.

Source: Paper copy of abstract. [This study evaluated winter

deer browse resources for availability and utilization in

southern New Hampshire forests from FIA tree and browse

production estimates. Browse production was poorly

associated with site variables, but was greatest in saplingseedling stands. Differences by forest type were negligible.

Browse utilization was below 10 percent in all but spruce-fir

sawtimber stands (20 percent). Mast production was greatest

in sawtimber stands, corresponding to the occurrence of

mast producing trees.]

Keywords: Browse, mast, NH, wildlife.

5. Bechtold, William A. 1983. DYNARIP: a technique for

regional forest inventory projection. Durham, NC: Duke

University. 58 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: Duke University Library. [This study involved a

technique for regional forest inventory projection and policy

analysis (Bechtold 1989).]

Keywords: Custom software, SEFIA, timber production

modeling.

6. Bell, Kelly, Jr. 1993. A probabilistic evaluation of the

harvesting behavior of private timberland owners in

eastern Texas. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University.

136 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 54, no. 11B (1993): 5458. This study was

conducted to provide a mechanism for improving local

timber supply modeling capability by estimating the

probabilities of softwood harvest for the two private

timberland ownership classes under varying biological

conditions. The FIA data for eastern Texas were examined to

determine their viability for use in harvest behavior

modeling on small geographic levels and filtering

procedures were developed to use the data. Models of

softwood harvesting behavior for private timberland owners

for two timbershed areas in eastern Texas during the period

between 1975 and 1986 were specified and calibrated using

the filtered FIA data. The usefulness of logistic regression

diagnostic procedures for harvest behavior modeling was

examined.

Close examination of the FIA data revealed suspect data

values caused by measurement or recording errors, plots

with negative periodic gross growth, and other problems

that are not usually considered in analyses over small

geographic areas using FIA data. Lost plots and substitute

points were problematic when estimating the models. After

filtering, the probability of harvest for both industrial and

nonindustrial owners was found to increase as initial

standing volume increased and as periodic growth and

periodic mortality decreased. Data from the two timbersheds

was pooled, and the dummy variable created to test for

differences between the two areas while controlling the

stand variables was significant at the p = 0.10 level,

supporting the notion that differences between the

timbersheds could be seen in stand age structure and types

of processing facilities.

The diagnostic procedures were useful in identifying

influential observations that affected the model fit. The

magnitude of the coefficients on the continuous variables in

both timbersheds increased after reestimation of the model.

Unless there is evidence that measurement or recording

errors occurred, however, it is not recommended that such

plots be deleted from calibrating the model. The logistic

model also offers opportunities to explore other factors

affecting timber management behavior that may be useful

for forest policy analysis purposes.

Keywords: Harvest probability (plot), owner, TX.

7. Benessalah, Driss. 1985. Forest area estimation using

cluster sampling in single and two phase survey designs.

St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota. 183 p. Ph.D.

dissertation.

Source: DAI 46, no. 10B (1985): 3311. Existing forest

surveys utilize large numbers of small to medium scale

photo plots with a subsample of ground checks to estimate

forest areas. Subsequent breakdowns by cover types are

usually based on a much smaller set of carefully measured

plots, and consequently, there are large sampling errors

associated with cover types on county or smaller area bases.
5

This is significant in that cover types and stands that

comprise them are the actual units on which management is

imposed.

The problem addressed in this study concerns the use and

cost efficiency of medium scale aerial color photography

combined with clusters in single and double phase sampling

designs, for forest area determination. Emphasis is also on

the usefulness of small format photography systems, and

designs to be implemented with minimal technology in

developing countries.

The survey covered two study areas, one in Minnesota

(USA) and the other in Morocco. On aerial photographs,

taken over sample locations, clusters of points were the

basis for forest type classification and area proportion

estimation. Single and double phase cluster sampling were

compared on the basis of feasibility and costs. The analysis

involved studying the relationship between intra-cluster

correlation and cluster size and distance between cluster

elements.

Cluster sampling resulted in a substantial gain over

sampling with individual units, and two-phase sampling

produced even larger gains. Also, since the variable of

interest observed in the cluster is the presence or absence of

a given cover type, relatively short distances between cluster

elements can be effective, because cover types change so

quickly. [Refers to an examination of the FIA sample

design. Direct FIA data use is uncertain.]

Keywords: MN, sample design (air photo).

8. Binkley, Clark Shepard. 1979. Timber supply from

private nonindustrial forests: an economic analysis of

landowner behavior. New Haven, CT: Yale University.

127 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: Yale University. [The study involves a microeconomic analysis of landowner behavior. See Binkley

(1981) for details.]

Keywords: Owner, timber production modeling.

9. Birdsey, Richard Alan. 1989. A dynamic matrix model

for updating forest resource inventories. Syracuse, NY:

State University of New York, College of Environmental

Science and Forestry. 276 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 50, no. 07B (1989): 2703. The objective of the

study was to develop a model to update forest inventory

estimates that are outdated. Estimates from past successive

forest inventories were used to estimate historical rates of

area change by forest type and disturbance class, and

exogenous data were used to adjust rates of change after the

most recent inventory. Historical rates of area change by

forest type were estimated with Markov transition matrices

for major classes of forest disturbance. Principal sources of

exogenous data were annual planting records and timber

severance tax reports. The model was applied to a large

region in southwest Arkansas and validated with a new

inventory. The predicted total area of timberland was 1.1

percent different than estimated in the new survey. Predicted

softwood volume was also 1.1 percent different than

estimated. Predicted hardwood volume was off by 5.8

percent, softwood growth was off by 22.9 percent,

hardwood growth was off by 14.2 percent, softwood

removals were off by 5.3 percent, and hardwood removals

were off by 9.4 percent when compared with the new

inventory estimates.

The use of exogenous data to adjust historical rates of

change improved the prediction of the area of timberland by

forest type, with the exception of upland hardwoods.

Additions to timberland from nonforest land uses were

predicted accurately, but not landclearing. The total area

harvested and its distribution by forest type were predicted

accurately in most cases.

The area matrix model is a powerful tool for updating, and

could be improved by using more current observations in

estimating certain cells of the type transition matrices. An

analysis of transition rate stability showed most cell

estimates were stable over a 20-year period. The exogenous

data was shown to have a close relationship with trends in

area harvested and regenerated to pine. It was concluded

that estimates of landclearing and other disturbances could

be improved with remote sensing for change detection, and

that subsampling was needed to improve most estimates of

the mean volume, growth, and removals per acre.

Keywords: AR, timber production updating.

10. Bolton, Robert Keith. 1984. A comparison of diameter

growth for selected tree species among physiographic

regions of Georgia. Auburn, AL: Auburn University. 104 p.

M.S. thesis.

Source: Auburn University. [Not available. A related

publication (Bolton and Meldahl 1989) referred to

opportunities and problems with using FIA data. FIA-related

measurement issues referenced stand age, stand density, and

site class by species.]

Keywords: GA, tree growth modeling.
6

11. Borges, Jose Guilherme Martins Dias Calvao. 1994. A

modeling approach to spatial constraints in forest

management. St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota.

128 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 56, no. 02B (1994): 0587. There is an

increasing awareness of the value of forests for wildlife

survival, biodiversity protection, recreational uses and

aesthetics. The importance of forest uses other than timber

production places a new challenge to forest management.

The effort to supply wood in order to satisfy an also

increasing demand for timber related products may not

ignore this challenge, and spatial considerations—how to

concentrate or layout harvests in order to account for other

demands from the forests—must be given a new prominence

when developing forest plans.

In this research project, a heuristic based on dynamic

programming was used to develop forest management plans

which comply with adjacency constraints. These may

encompass both the definition of a maximum clearcut size—

ensured by an adequate territorial division of the forest—

and a minimum exclusion period—the time that must elapse

before two adjacent stands (polygons) are clearcut. The

objective of this research project was to assess the potential

of this technique to address the large scale attributes of most

forest management problems.

After discussing the importance and the potential of

operation research techniques to address the complex issues

involved in current forest management modeling, a literature

review summarizes research efforts that have been

developed in order to incorporate spatial factors in forest

planning. The heuristic is presented and the model

application is described. Data from the Forest Inventory

Analysis (FIA) of the US Forest Service and topological

information available for the Superior National Forest in

Minnesota were used as input to the model. Additional

silvicultural and economic data needed was generated using

modules from the Decision Support System developed for

forest management modeling at the University of

Minnesota. Several management scenarios for a

hypothetical forest, with an area of 27,221 hectares and

comprising 3002 stands were considered to test the

heuristic. The results show that this technique can handle

effectively the large scale attributes (large areas and

extended planning horizons) that characterize most forest

management problems. The solutions for the spatially

constrained planning problems are presented and

perspectives for additional research for the improvement of

the heuristic application are summarized.

Keywords: Decision support system, GIS, MN, NFS,

planning (spatial constraints), proximity.

12. Brooks, David James. 1984. Nonindustrial forests,

public policy and long-term timber supply in the South.

Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University. 110 p. Ph.D.

dissertation.

Source: DAI 44, no. 10B (1984): 2946. Forest Service

projections of the long-term supply and demand for forest

products indicate that increasing importance will be placed

on the supply behavior of nonindustrial private forest

owners in the South. The inventory model on which these

projections are based may produce biased estimates of

southern timber production, however, as a result of the

failure to account for changes in management practices and

shifts in the distribution of forest area by stand type. In

addition, it has not been possible to assess explicitly the

influence of government policies on future timber supplies.

The first component of this study is an age-class based

inventory projection model that incorporates stand

establishment, thinning practices and the successional

tendencies of natural regeneration in the South. Model

projections of southern softwood inventories differ

considerably from previous estimates. Softwood growing

stock on nonindustrial private forest land will decline, by the

year 2000, by more than 30 percent from the level in 1977

when harvests anticipated by the Forest Service are

combined with historical levels of softwood regeneration.

Softwood inventories on forest industry lands will increase

over the same period due to pine plantation establishment.

The second component is a policy analysis system which is

applied to an examination of the long-term impact of

reforestation cost-share payments programs. The

coefficients of policy-sensitive management equations are

estimated from historical data; these equations are linked

with the inventory model and a model of timber markets.

Projections with these models indicate that when program

funding is continued at current levels softwood stumpage

and product prices will increase faster than previously

expected. Substantial increases in cost-share payments can

result in lower prices but have little effect before the year

2010.

Keywords: Reforestation program impacts, SRSFIA, timber

production modeling (age class).

13. Brooks, Robert Thomas. 1984. An analysis of the use of

national land use inventories for regional avian habitat

assessments. Syracuse, NY: State University of New York,

College of Environmental Science and Forestry. 186 p.

Ph.D. dissertation.
7

Source: DAI 45, no. 12B (1984): 3676. The assessment of

wildlife habitat quality is required of both the U.S. Forest

Service (USFS) and Soil Conservation Service (SCS) as part

of their legally mandated, periodic, national, natural

resources surveys. County-level land cover data, from

reoccurring national land resource surveys are used to

generate regional landscape values for 211 counties in parts

of three ecological provinces. Abundance values for 24 bird

species are estimated for each of these counties using fiveyear summaries of applicable Breeding Bird Survey (BBS)

route data. The regional landscape values are related to

discrete species abundance classes and the resulting

discriminant function models are interpreted as descriptive

of regional habitat conditions. Of 66 bird province-species

combinations, discriminant models correctly predict

membership in applicable abundance classes at better than

75 percent. Within species, modeling accuracy levels vary

but are consistently better than expected by chance alone.

Interpretations of the discriminant landscape models for

habitat descriptions are generally comparable to published

habitat accounts. Habitat comparisons between species show

favorable consistency both within provinces and between

provinces.

Keywords: BBS, birds, NEFIA, wildlife.

14. Caprata, Michael W. 1982. Adaptation of the stand

and tree evaluation and modeling systems of the forest

resource evaluation program in the Central States.

Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University. 43 p. M.S.

thesis.

Source: Southern Illinois University. [Objectives of the

study included forest growth projections for areas of

southern Illinois.]

Keywords: IL, tree growth modeling.

15. Carter, Douglas Ray. 1993. Empirical evidence on

efficiency in forest-related markets. Athens, GA:

University of Georgia. 125 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 54, no. 06B (1993): 2832. The thesis presents

three essays on problems relating to defining and measuring

efficiency in two forest-related markets, southern pulpwood

harvesting and Federal timber sale programs. At the heart of

each essay are the related concepts of efficiency and

optimality.

The first essay measures technical efficiency among

methods of pulpwood harvesting in the Southern U.S. in

1979 and 1987. An econometric frontier production function

is modeled using analysis-of-covariance methods, which

results in consistent estimates of method effects. Employed

efficiency measures isolate economies of scale from what

can be termed pure technical efficiency. Harvesting methods

utilizing either extremely low or high capitalization levels

were the most technically efficient. Efficiency measures

correlate well with the observed evolution of the industry

over the period.

The second essay examines firm specific and average

industry technical efficiency for southern pulpwood

producers in 1979 and 1987 using an econometric stochastic

frontier production function. The stochastic frontier

production function is capable of distinguishing deviations

from the frontier due to uncontrollable stochastic elements

as well as provide a pure measure of technical efficiency.

Results indicate that mean industry technical efficiency was

nearly constant at 60 percent in both periods while technical

change averaged 1.8 percent per year over the period.

Production levels, methods of production, and elements of

human capital were influential in explaining efficiency

differentials among firms.

The final essay develops a model capable of examining the

efficiency with which current reservation price setting or

appraisal policies under a given auction type maximize

Federal timber sale revenues. A simultaneous-equations

Tobit model is developed that simulates the impact of

increasing reservation price on the market value, given a

sold offering, and the probability that an offering will sell.

The model is tested on 370 national forest timber sales in

North Carolina between 1979 and 1991. Conservative

simulations indicate, ex post, that increasing reservation

price could increase total revenue by as much as 8 percent in

North Carolina. Per unit revenues could increase 21 percent.

However, volume might decline by an associated 14 percent

since higher reservation prices reduce the volume sold.

Keywords: Economics, NC, NFS, timber production

modeling.

16. Catts, Glenn Paul. 1992. Aerial photographic sampling

for statewide resource inventory. Raleigh, NC: North

Carolina State University. 295 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 53, no. 10B (1992): 5129. The land use and

forest resource conditions of the State of North Carolina

were photointerpreted from 1:12,000 scale, color infrared

aerial photography. Nearly 400 circular plots, of 1000 acres

in area, were type mapped by two photointerpreters

according to classification definitions adopted from those of

the Southeastern Forest Inventory and Analysis (SEFIA)

unit of the U.S. Forest Service. Photo plots were arranged in
8

a statewide systematic layout. Four classification levels

were used. The initial 1000 acre plot size was further

subdivided into six smaller concentric plot sizes. Acreage

photointerpreted was converted into a percentage estimate

for each plot by forming a ratio of the number of acres type

mapped in the class over the total number of acres in the

plot. Regional and statewide percentage estimates for all

classes in all classification schemes and for all plot sizes

were produced separately. Fieldwork was conducted at

nearly 300 locations imaged by the aerial photography.

Results of coincident fieldwork and photointerpretation

were cross-tabulated into a series of error matrices used to

adjust the initial percentage estimates for classification bias.

The precision of the percentage estimates was calculated

using a Monte Carlo simulation technique known as

bootstrapping. Accuracy of the percentage estimates was

assessed by comparison with temporally coincident SEFIA

5th survey results (1982-1984). The influence on precision

of the numbers and size of the sample plots photointerpreted, and the number of coincident plots used to build

the error matrix was investigated. An optimization model

was formulated with the objective of finding a minimum

total cost for a multiresource survey design meeting

predetermined, class specific precision requirements.

Photointerpretation was found to be accurate and consistent

among the most experienced individuals. Adjusted class

percentage estimates were closer to SEFIA estimates than

were unadjusted for many classes. Bootstrapped confidence

intervals contained SEFIA field survey estimates. Solutions

to the minimization model indicated that photointerpretation

of plots in sizes above 800 acres were most cost effective in

an example examined. Optimization modeling could assist

resource managers in choosing most efficient multiresource

survey designs.

Keywords: NC, remote sensing, sample design (air photo).

17. Cherry, Heidi Ruth. 1998. Projecting Michigan’s aspen

timber resource. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State

University. 87 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: MAI 36, no. 06 (1998): 1519. Remeasured plots

from 1980 and 1993 Michigan forest inventories were used

to develop harvest probability equations based on stand

characteristics such as ownership, stocking, and location.

Michigan’s 1993 inventory plots with aspen were projected

thirty years using a modified version of STEMS85 with

management based on these equations. Michigan specific

diameter growth and mortality correction factors were

included. The projected net loss between 1993-2023 in

aspen growing stock volume is 60 percent, from 40 million

to 16 million cords. The greatest proportional loss of aspen

is projected to occur on private ownerships and in the Upper

Peninsula while public lands and the Lower Peninsula

increase their proportions. The average annual harvest is

projected to increase from a 1983-1993 level of 122 million

cubic feet to 128 million cubic feet between 1993-2003.

However, projections show a decrease to 97 million cubic

feet per year between 2003-2013 and 74 million cubic feet

per year from 2013-2023.

Keywords: Harvest probability (plot), MI, timber production

modeling.

18. Clements, Stephen E. 1987. A timber supply analysis

for southwest Virginia. Blacksburg, VA: Virginia

Polytechnic Institute and State University. 147 p. Ph.D.

dissertation.

Source: DAI 48, no. 05B (1987): 1202. A model was

developed to estimate the economic stock supply of primary

wood products. Two hardwood products were recognized:

logs and bolts. The supply model was used to evaluate the

impacts of shifting primary product demands and increasing

supply costs on delivered prices and quantities in southwest

Virginia.

Homogeneous supply response cells, identified from Forest

Service forest survey data, were used to generate log and

bolt supplies. Response cells define blocks of forest land

with similar biologic, physiographic, and landowner

characteristics. Yield equations estimate the volume of logs

and bolts available. Harvesting and hauling costs depend on

a response cell’s physiographic characteristics. Stumpage

owners set reservation price as a function of expected

stumpage prices, future timber yields, and an alternative rate

of return. Recovery cost per cunit in a response cell equals

the sum of harvesting and hauling costs and reservation

price. The quantities of logs and bolts supplied are

determined by comparing harvest revenues to recovery

costs. If revenues are greater than or equal to costs in a

particular response cell, then timber is harvested.

The demands for logs and bolts are derived from the

demand for manufactured products. Log and bolt demand

equations in the model were statistically estimated.

For each time period, the model determines the delivered

log and bolt prices which equate the quantities of logs and

bolts supplied to the quantities demanded. The solution

technique is iterative. The quantities demanded and supplied

of logs and bolts are determined for the given delivered

prices. If quantities supplied do not equal the quantities
9

demanded, then delivered prices are adjusted, and the

quantities are recalculated.

Primary product supplies in southwest Virginia are price

elastic because of extensive hardwood resources and

relatively constant recovery costs. Expansions in primary

product demands expected over the next 15 years should

have little direct impact on delivered prices. Delivered

prices, however, will be sensitive to production costs. These

costs will rise if factor input prices, such as fuel prices,

wage rates, or machinery costs, increase.

Keywords: Economic haul distance, VA.

19. Cohan, David. 1982. Forest management and timber

industry market equilibrium. Stanford, CA: Stanford

University. 266 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 43, no. 04A (1982): 1224. Forest management

involves a complex system of natural processes and

economic interactions. Competing demands for forest

products and amenity uses suggest that the tradeoffs

involved in forest management will continue to present

difficult problems. The purpose of this research is to develop

the theory and methodology necessary for modeling the

dynamic behavior and market interactions of the timber

industry. The result is a flexible capability for developing

market equilibrium models that can be used to analyze a

wide range of forest management decisions.

The modeling approach is based on four key ideas: the use

of generic process models to represent the behavior of

economic agents, the use of a network structure to represent

the interactions among economic agents, the use of optimal

control techniques to develop a detailed theoretical model of

forest management and timber supply, and the use of an

iterative solution algorithm. Process models are developed

to represent private sector timber suppliers, public sector

forest management agencies, mills, and forest products

demand sectors. The algorithm is used to solve the dynamic

models for market equilibrium prices and quantities, timber

age-class distributions, and other results that reflect

important intertemporal interactions.

The central theoretical result is a set of equations defining

the solution to the multidimensional problem of forest

management and timber supply. One of the difficult parts of

the problem is the optimal choice of timber stands to

harvest, given multiple ages, species, sites, and markets for

different grades of timber. This research shows that stands

should be harvested in order of increasing total marginal

cost, where the cost includes both harvest costs and the

opportunity cost of the harvested timber. The opportunity

cost, determined as part of the solution, reflects the

intertemporal scarcity of standing timber.

A model of the Pacific Northwest softwood timber industry

is developed to demonstrate the modeling capability. The

use of such a model in analyzing forest policy and

management decisions is outlined, and insights from

sensitivity analyses are discussed. Results of the model

suggest that it may be possible to manage public sector

lands more efficiently, providing both increased timber

supplies and the expansion of areas reserved for wilderness

or other nontimber uses.

Keywords: Economics, PNWFIA, timber production

modeling.

20. Compte, Roberta Sue Davidson. 1994. A tree height

model for 34 species of the north central region of the

U.S. St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota. 59 p. M.S.

(Plan B) paper.

Source: Paper copy of report. [This study developed an

individual tree height model for merchantable height (4 inch

top diameter outside bark) for 34 tree species of the North

Central United States. This model was then used to derive

merchantable-height prediction equations for trees on Forest

Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots where height was not

measured. Such trees included STEMS-predicted (Belcher

and others 1982) diameters from growth-simulated past

measurements.]

Keywords: NCFIA, tree measurement modeling.

21. Cooke, William Henry, III. 1997. A remote sensing

methodology for testing the applicability and

implementation of landscape partitioning systems with

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer satellite

data. Mississippi State, MS: Mississippi State University.

89 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 58, no. 07B (1997): 3389. The Southern

Research Station, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

(SRSFIA) has the mandate to conduct forest inventories for

all Southern States from Virginia to Texas. Except for

sparsely forested regions in west Texas and west Oklahoma,

forest land in the South has been field inventoried over

several cycles in recent history. An assessment of these

western woodland resources is needed to meet the SRSFIA’s

inventory mandate. Advanced Very High Resolution

Radiometer (AVHRR) weather satellite data was examined

for its usefulness in fulfilling this mandate.
10

Satellite data analysis for natural resource assessment

involves extracting useful information from the data. This

study was developed to enhance existing methodologies

designed to extract information from AVHRR data.

Understanding the landscape processes which dictate plant

distributions is essential to this process.

A review of the literature indicated that landscape

partitioning systems have been used with AVHRR data in

preclassification and postclassification scenarios. Decisions

regarding the need for partitioning and the choice of a

particular partitioning system have been subjectively made.

This study yielded quantitative evidence that confirms the

usefulness of partitioning in general, and the superiority of

Bailey’s landscape partitioning system for the west Texas

and west Oklahoma study area. Statistical tests revealed that

variability of Jeffries-Matusita (J-M) distances were within

acceptable limits, and that a sample based approach could be

used for generating spectral signatures for assessing

partitioning effectiveness.

Keywords: OK, satellite remote sensing, TX.

22. DeCoster, James Krause. 1996. Impacts of tornados

and hurricanes on the community structure and

dynamics of North and South Carolina forests. Chapel

Hill, NC: University of North Carolina. 361 p. Ph.D.

dissertation.

Source: DAI 57, no. 05B (1996): 3000. Severe wind storms,

such as tornados and hurricanes, regularly traverse the

landscapes of the Carolinas, causing changes in the structure

and composition of the forest communities. In order to

understand the immediate and possible long-term impacts of

these storms, a study was initiated to examine tree damage,

mortality, and subsequent regeneration by sprouts and

seedlings.

The first part of this study documents the impacts on

Piedmont North Carolina forests of a 1988 tornado.

Probability of tree damage increased with tree size and

varied among species. These factors, and the type of damage

sustained, influenced subsequent mortality. Forest recovery

proceeded through a combination of seedling regeneration

and tree sprouting. Many hardwood trees survived through

the prolific generation of sprouts from the damaged stems.

Differences in sprouting among trees were attributed to

differences in tree size, species and edaphic factors.

Seedling regeneration is dominated by species that were of

minor subcanopy components in the pre-disturbance forest.

The second part of the study examines the immediate

impacts of Hurricane Hugo on the forests of South Carolina.

Tree data from U.S. Forest Service plots across the State

were combined with a hurricane model developed by the

National Hurricane Center to identify factors that influence

tree damage. Tree damage was best modeled as a function of

wind speed, tree architecture and site factors. Tree damage

was primarily determined by wind speed, while tree height,

architecture, and species account for variation in the damage

patterns. However, relative susceptibilities of species and

tree characteristics were found to vary across gradients of

wind speed and damage severity.

In response to wind storms, the differential susceptibilities

of species and tree size classes result in immediate changes

in the species composition and structure of the forest.

Differential mortality and sprouting of the surviving trees,

coupled with seedling regeneration, will determine how the

forest composition will change over time.

Keywords: NC, SC, tree species susceptibility, weather

damage.

23. Dennis, Donald Forrest. 1988. An economic analysis of

harvest behavior: integrating ownership and forest

characteristics. New Haven, CT: Yale University. 152 p.

Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 50, no. 11A (1988): 3682. Ownership surveys

reveal that nonindustrial private forest-land owners, who

control a majority of the commercial forest land in the

United States, hold land primarily for reasons other than

timber production. Determining how much timber is

available from this sector is difficult because multiple

objectives cause these owners to respond to economic forces

in a more complex and less predictable way than forest

industry.

This study provides insight into the determinants of timber

supply from private forests through development of both

theoretical and empirical models of harvest behavior. A

microeconomic model is presented that encompasses the

multiple objective nature of private ownership by examining

the harvest decision for landowners who derive utility from

forest amenities and income used for the consumption of

other goods. Probit analysis estimates the relationship

between a dichotomous, yes or no, harvest variable and

selected forest, owner, and economic characteristic. Tobit

analysis, appropriate for censored samples, estimates the

relationship between the quantity of timber harvested and a

similar set of explanatory variables. Both analyses are

performed on cross-sectional and pooled time-series and

cross-sectional data for individual forest plots in New

Hampshire. The inclusion of forest, owner, and economic
11

variables and the in-depth interpretation of the Tobit results

distinguish this study from previous work.

The empirical results highlight the influence of forest

characteristics and landowner affluence on the harvest

decision. High per-acre timber volume and the proportion of

commercially valuable species like white pine and red oak

were positively correlated with timber harvesting while

negative correlations were found for a landowner’s

exogenous income and years of formal education. Weak

correlations, generally not significant at the 10 percent level,

were found between financial variables and timber

harvesting.

Decomposition of the Tobit coefficients indicates that

changes in timber supply are expected to result primarily

from changes in the number of acres from which timber is

offered for sale and to a much lesser extent from changes in

per-acre harvesting intensity. Marginal supply responses

vary considerably depending on the values for the other

coefficients and variables, underscoring the need to consider

the shape of the distribution as well as the mean values for

the explanatory variables when projecting harvest behavior.

Keywords: Economics, harvest probability (plot), NH,

owner survey.

24. Eckhoff, Janet Dawn. 2000. Efficacy of forest health

monitoring indicators to evince impacts on a chemically

manipulated watershed. Orono, ME: University of Maine.

318 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 61, no. 05B (2000): 2291. The USDA Forest

Service, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),

and other agencies jointly developed the Forest Health

Monitoring (FHM) program to assess the health of forests in

the USA. Among the FHM indicators that have been

implemented at sites across the USA are forest mensuration,

crown condition, damage & catastrophic mortality, lichen

communities, and vegetation structure. The efficacy of these

five FHM indicators plus two additional indicators, tree

canopy gap fraction and tree seed production, were tested at

Bear Brook Watershed in Maine (BBWM) to determine

their ability to detect the impacts of enhanced atmospheric

deposition on forest vegetation. BBWM is a paired

watershed research site, established as part of the EPA’s

Watershed Manipulation Program. Since 1989, West Bear

has been chemically manipulated with bimonthly

ammonium sulfate applications.

Results from the FHM damage and catastrophic mortality

and crown condition indictors reflected no incidence of

foliar damage related to the ammonium sulfate additions at

BBWM. Similarly, the FHM forest mensuration indicator

reflected no influence of the ammonium sulfate additions on

tree radial growth. There was a significant increase in the

number of sugar maple seedlings in the manipulated

watershed. Similarly the FHM vegetation structure indicator

showed a significant increase in shrub abundance in the

manipulated watershed.

The FHM forest mensuration indicator results reflected a

slight trend towards decreased diversity in the number of

sapling and seedling species present in the manipulated

watershed. The FHM lichen communities indicator showed

a similar trend of lower species diversity in the manipulated

watershed. For lichens, the overall number of species and

the average number of species per plot were both slightly

lower.

Results from previous studies at BBWM have demonstrated

changes in stream chemistry, soil chemistry, and tree and

moss foliar chemistries all related to the ammonium sulfate

manipulation. However, none of the five FHM indicators, or

the two additional indicators, demonstrated decisively that

the ammonium sulfate additions were affecting the

vegetation at BBWM. A more accurate assessment of the

linkage between acidic deposition impacts and forest

vegetation is necessary to develop an indicator able to detect

chemical perturbations such as acidic deposition.

Keywords: Air pollution, diversity (all vegetative species),

FHM, lichens, ME, shrubs, tree crown health.

25. Ediriwickrema, Don Jayantha. 1996. Modeling and

analysis of AVHRR data for biogenic emission inventory

system (BEIS). Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State

University. 178 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 57, no. 03B (1996): 1528. The Biogenic

Emission Inventory System (BEIS) is found to be uncertain

in the order of a factor of three. The U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency operates the BEIS based on three forest

classes: oak, coniferous, and other deciduous. The BEIS is

used to estimate biogenic volatile organic compound

(BVOC) emissions at varying spatial and temporal

resolutions. This study proposes a method to estimate the

aerial extent of genus-level forest classes from high

temporal resolution Advanced Very High Resolution

Radiometer (AVHRR) to minimize the uncertainty of the

inventory system. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA) program acquires AVHRR data

twice a day with wide swath coverage (2700 km). The hightemporal NOAA-AVHRR data provide valuable source-data

particularly for regional- and global-scale land and

environmental studies. However, the potential of the
12

AVHRR data is limited by one square km coarse spatial

resolution. The coarse spatial resolution AVHRR data are

mostly found as mixed pixels, and the potential use is

limited by the standard classification methods. These mixed

pixels must be interpreted by accounting for all mixed

classes instead of assigning each pixel into one class. This

study proposes a method to estimate the extent of genus

level forest classes from the AVHRR and the field data.

The forest areas are estimated from the AVHRR data by the

proposed constrained generalized least squares regression

(CGLS) method. The method is developed based on linear

mixture modeling and the restricted generalized least

squares regression analysis. The estimated genus-level forest

class fractions are dependent on the fitness of the linear

mixture model (LMM), the accuracy of the classified

Landsat thematic mapper data used in the calibration of the

LMM, the number of classes modeled in the LMM, and the

dependency among the classes modeled in the LMM. In

addition to the CGLS regression method, this study

proposes a hierarchical image classification (HIC) method

to produce better classified images than those classified

images produced by the maximum likelihood classification

with equal prior probabilities. The HIC uses the concept of

visualization of pixels in spectral space to delineate the

mixed pixels and their components. Improved classified

images calibrate LMM reliably. The knowledge of the

mixed pixels and their components minimizes the

complexities in estimating land use/land cover (LU/LC)

class fractions while minimizing the uncertainties in the

estimates.

Genus-level forest areas are estimated in a Geographic

Information System using the estimated forest class

fractions and the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data.

The fractions of the forest classes are estimated from the

AVHRR data, and the FIA data are collected in the field by

the U.S.D.A. Forest Service. The proposed CGLS regression

method along with the proposed HIC method outlines an

effective and feasible scenario to estimate the extent of

forest classes. The estimated extent of forest classes from

the coarse spatial resolution AVHRR data provides a base to

derive the extent of genus-level forest classes at a varied

level spatial and temporal resolution to minimize the

uncertainty of the BEIS.

Keywords: Air pollution, satellite remote sensing.

26. Erkkila, Daniel Lee. 1980. Forest management

opportunities and associated regional impacts for

northeastern Minnesota. St. Paul, MN: University of

Minnesota. 52 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: Paper copy of abstract. [This study linked the Forest

Resources Economic Plan (FREP) to the Minnesota

Regional Economic Impact Forecasting System (MREIFS)

for regional analysis (labor, capital, and timber resources) in

economic activity of timber-based industries.]

Keywords: Economics, MN, timber production modeling.

27. Erkkila, Daniel Lee. 1991. Valuation of forest-based

nonmarket outputs: a cost-price approach. St. Paul, MN:

University of Minnesota. 176 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 52, no. 08B (1991): 3972. Nonmarket forest

outputs (goods or services not traded in a traditional

marketplace) continue to attract increasing attention.

Traditional methods of nonmarket valuation, including

direct (survey) and indirect approaches, are not widely

accepted and often come with high data collection costs. For

some situations, like accounting, values based on shadow

prices for nonmarket outputs may be adequate.

Analyzing nonmarket outputs produced by timber harvest

can be difficult because of the typically large numbers of

stands involved in a harvest scheduling problem and

temporal aspects of the decision. Models frequently fail

from data overload stemming from model size.

DUALPLAN, a model overcoming many of these

limitations, was used to test a cost-price approach to value

grouse recreation-visitor-days (RVDS of consumptive use)

and nongame RVDS (nonconsumptive use) while producing

timber. Using both simulation and linear programming to

report key dual (economic) variables, DUALPLAN

identified the marginal costs of producing both timber and

the nonmarket outputs from managing a test forest made up

of four major cover types (plus added attributes that

generated over 4,600 stands).

The DUALPLAN analyses included development of market

and nonmarket economic supply tables, even-flows of

timber at various price levels (marginal costs), plus

reporting other observable timber and nonmarket (price)

impacts from varying management cost and stand attribute

(production) variables. Timber and nonmarket price

sensitivities were observed valuing grouse and nongame

outputs at both the RVD and individual animal level and

using nonmarket values developed by other methods (i.e.,

RPA). Harvest scheduling effects were also observed for all

analyses, over time. Data limitations primarily involved

unavailable data regarding the relationships between

nonmarket output production (i.e., wildlife and dispersed

recreation) and timber harvest.
13

DUALPLAN was effective and computationally

inexpensive in cost-pricing both market and nonmarket

outputs. While data and production function limitations

resulted in only two nonmarket outputs tested, broader

applications are possible. The DUALPLAN model could

analyze significantly more complex forest problems than

tested here. This investigation suggests great potential in

exploring the nonmarket economic interactions with stand

harvest scheduling, when the nonmarket production

functions are known.

Keywords: Economics, recreation, timber and recreation

modeling.

28. Faulkner, Joanne Lenahan. 1994. Hardwood timber in

Mississippi: recent trends in the resource and its use.

Mississippi State, MS: Mississippi State University. 129 p.

M.S. thesis.

Source: MAI 33, no. 01 (1994): 0123. USDA Forest Service

Forest Inventory and Analysis [FIA] data from the 1977 and

1987 surveys were used to analyze the status of the

hardwood resource in Mississippi. Significant differences

between the data were determined for volume, growth,

removals, and mortality. Examples illustrating differences

between inventory and available volume were provided

using operability constraints.

Mississippi severance tax removals were used to determine

differences in removals since 1987. Results from the 1994

survey of north Mississippi were analyzed to assess the

latest inventory and compare with severance tax removals.

The 1977 and 1987 surveys indicated an increasing

inventory. Severance tax removals, particularly for

pulpwood in northeast Mississippi have increased

considerably since 1985. Trends evident in severance tax

removals were also evident in the results of the 1994 north

Mississippi survey. A shortage of hardwood timber in

Mississippi is possible due to the large increases in removals

and small increases in hardwood regeneration. [A model to

predict removals was developed from average annual

removals from severance tax and FIA estimates. The author

also used established categories (Bechtold and Sheffield

1991, McWilliams and Rosson 1988, Spencer and others

1986) of volume per acre, average tree diameter, distance

from road, slope to describe four operability classes—

combinations of road proximity+slope+vol/ac+avg dbh—for

the region.]

Keywords: Economics, MS, operability, timber production

modeling.

29. Flick, Dennis D. 1984. Private timber supply

projections for western Oregon and Washington: a

comparison with 1980 RPA timber supply estimates.

Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University. 88 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: Fox and DeWolfe (1994) #3457. [Mathematical

models, timber supply.]

Keywords: OR, timber production modeling, WA.

30. Franco-Lopez, Hector. 1999. Updating forest

monitoring systems estimates. St. Paul, MN: University of

Minnesota. 123 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 60, no. 08B (1999): 3640. Intensifying public

interest in forests and the development of new monitoring

technologies have induced major changes in the methods for

updating forest monitoring systems. This thesis reviews the

available methods for projecting and propagating forest plot

and stand information. Since developing a methodology to

produce forest maps based in forest inventory data would be

very useful for many forest management and planning

purposes, emphasis is focused on propagating forest sample

information through the landscape for producing locally

useful maps of forest variables such as cover type, stand

density, and timber volume. Considerable effort in

combining forest monitoring systems information, remote

sensing, and Geographic Information Systems disciplines

has been made in Nordic Countries.

One of the applications developed from this work is the knearest neighbors (kNN) method for forest estimation and

mapping. In the kNN method, the information contained in

field sample units is propagated to the entire population

using a similarity function. The result is a form of poststratification. We examine the use of the kNN method for

producing wall-to-wall basal area, volume and cover type

maps in the context of the USDA Forest Service’s Forest

Inventory and Analysis (FIA) monitoring system. Several

variations within the kNN method were tested, including:

distance metric, weighting function, and number of

neighbors. Also, specific procedures to incorporate ancillary

information and image enhancement techniques were tested.

The final products from this thesis are basal area, volume

and cover type maps based on FIA and other inventory data.

Additionally, each of these maps was characterized by

estimations of their overall accuracy using cross-validation

and other bootstrap based techniques.

Keywords: Geostatistics, GIS, MN, satellite remote sensing

and FIA ground measurement, timber production updating.
14

31. Frazer, Rory Fenton. 1993. Rural industrial location

models for the wood processing industry in Northeastern

United States of America. University Park, PA:

Pennsylvania State University. 199 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: Pennsylvania State University. In this study, forest

inventory data from the USDA Forest Service was used to

construct measures of the stock of forest resources within

economic haul distance of rural northeastern communities.

The ARC/INFO Geographic Information System was used

to convert the forest inventory data for 17 States. These

measures along with 26 other community attributes such as

agglomeration, inputs, outputs, transportation, demographic,

service sector, etc. formed the pool of independent variables

which were analyzed by logistic regression procedures. The

results were parsimonious industrial location models for the

logging, sawmill, and secondary wood processing

industries.

Extension of the analysis to include a comparison of all

wood processing establishments which started indicated that

policy initiatives aimed at recruiting secondary wood

processing establishments need to be cognizant of their high

attrition rates and propensity for metropolitan locations.

Another extension of the analysis indicated that successful

establishments chose communities whose characteristics

were different from the characteristics of communities

chosen by unsuccessful establishments. Given these

differences, the industrial location models for successful

establishments were chosen as the final models for the three

industries.

The final industrial location models for the logging, sawmill

and secondary industries comprised nine, six and ten

variables, respectively. The forest resources, service sector

and agglomeration attributes of the rural communities were

important in all models. These industrial location models

can be used to target communities for the wood industry as

well as assess the potential impact of policy initiatives.

Keywords: Economic haul distance, GIS, location modeling

(timber industry), NEFIA.

32. Freimund, Wayne Alan. 1994. Empirical validation of

a forest inventory based aesthetic value model. Madison,

WI: University of Wisconsin. 94 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 56, no. 03A (1994): 1123. A model is proposed

in which perceived forest attractiveness is defined by 14 onsite and contextual dimensions of the landscape. The on-site

dimensions include species diversity, presence of old growth

and large trees, vegetative distinctiveness, ground plane

conditions, negative human scale effects, and spatial

definition and visual penetration. The contextual dimensions

include slope steepness, landform enclosure of space, water

distinctiveness, absorption capacity, regional slope diversity

and regional water diversity, regional vegetative diversity,

and regional pattern of open space and forested mass. Each

dimension is operationalized within the Forest Inventory

and Analysis (FIA) data set and the cumulative value of the

dimensions is used to create an index of attractiveness for

each FIA plot in Minnesota.

Thirty-five millimeter slides of 100 inventory plots were

evaluated by 473 participants representing 18 potentially

different perspectives of forest management. The preference

ratings of the 18 groups factored into two primary groups.

This may have been the result of the order in which they

viewed the slides. The attractiveness index explained 19

percent of the variance for one group’s preferences and 28

percent of the variance in perceived attractiveness for the

other group. A narrative that related the context of the plot

was tested on eighteen plots. The narrative had a significant

effect on the preference ratings of 44 percent of the plots.

The changes in perceived attractiveness resulted in a near

complete reordering of the relative preference for the 18

plots.

Keywords: Amenity valuation, GEIS, MN, recreation.

33. Friedman, Steven Kevin. 2001. Landscape scale forest

composition and spatial structure: a comparison of the

presettlement General Land Office survey and the 1990

forest inventory in northeastern Minnesota. St. Paul,

MN: University of Minnesota. 159 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 62, no. 03B (2001): 1157. Initial timber

harvesting in Minnesota occurred prior to formal vegetation

surveys. Consequently, little is known about species

composition patterns, associations with soils, geology, and

spatial structural relationships of these forests. Species

response patterns to natural disturbance regimes however

are well known from this region, they were fire dependent.

However, fire suppression policy has been so successful and

the introduction of initial harvesting was so complete that

resource managers and ecologists are now concerned with

the consequence of substituting one disturbance regime for

another. This work was conducted at the landscape-scale

(3.2 million hectares) to improve our understanding of the

relationships of biodiversity and disturbance regimes in a

southern boreal forest landscape.

I reconstructed the presettlement forest vegetation in

northeastern Minnesota using General Land Office Survey

Records (1853 and 1917) from the Arrowhead region of the

State. A Geographical Information Systems data base was
15

established that includes digital maps of the survey records,

physiographic zones, geology, and soils. I examined species

composition patterns, associations with physical

environmental factors, and spatial structural relationships to

improve our understanding of the presettlement forest.

Results profile a low diversity forest with complex spatial

autocorrelated structure that was influenced by several

factors including, fire, geological materials, physiographic

zones, soils, and species clustering tendencies and

regeneration strategies.

Change in this forest following the introduction of logging

and the suppression of fire was assessed using the

presettlement records and 1990 East Wide Forest Inventory

and Analysis Survey data base. Species composition and

proportional basal area was assessed from these records. I

conducted this regional change assessment aggregating

presettlement and logging-era plot records within 253 10km

x 10km cells.

Results show that substantial changes to the relative

abundance, proportional basal area and spatial distribution

patterns of species across physiographic zones, and soils has

occurred. White pine was a dominant or co-dominant

species in 45 percent of the presettlement forest. Aspen has

become the regional dominant or co-dominant species in 83

percent of the forest. Forest community types with no

presettlement-era analog occur in 46 percent of region.

Major declines in white pine and larch were noted.

Keywords: GIS, GLO, MN, tree species.

34. Gunter, James Thomas. 1994. An econometric analysis

of softwood stumpage supply response to potential

regional environmental changes. Mississippi State, MS:

Mississippi State University. 99 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: MAI 33, no. 05 (1994): 1442. A GCM-generated 2 x

CO2 climatic change scenario for the South was used to

project the potential distribution of southern forests. A

scenario of the potential effect of a 2 x CO2 atmosphere on

forest yield was also developed. This information was used

in an econometric model to determine the potential effects

of regional climatic change, an enriched CO2 atmosphere,

and their combined influence on the South’s softwood

stumpage supply. The factors that would most increase

economic impact assessment accuracy were identified and

research needs were prioritized. The results indicated that

softwood stumpage supply was sensitive to changes in

softwood inventory, the area of the South projected to lose

forests contained most of the softwood inventory, and the

potential yield changes resulting from an enriched CO2

atmosphere would affect economic impact assessments less

than forest migration as migration increases. Refining the

estimates of forest distribution would increase economic

impact assessment accuracy the most.

Keywords: Climate change (economics), econometrics,

SRSFIA, timber production modeling.

35. Hansen, Mark Henry. 1990. A comprehensive sampling

system for forest inventory based on an individual tree

growth model. St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota. 268

p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 51, no. 12B (1990): 5668. The purpose of this

study was to develop an inventory system (sample design

and estimators) for 1983 Wisconsin forest inventory. The

basic hypothesis of the study was that an individual tree

growth model (STEMS) could be used to simulate plot

remeasurements. The procedure developed in this study

utilizes both remeasurement and new ground plots and

incorporates stratification for disturbance as well as the

STEMS growth model into the sampling and estimation

procedures. Estimates of area, volume, growth, and

removals produced by this system were within the accuracy

standards set for the inventory. Methods to integrate the new

sampling design into the existing NCFIA data base

management system and to produce all the information

needed by NCFIA were also developed.

The second objective of this study was to modify the basic

design developed for the 1983 Wisconsin inventory to find

ways that it could be improved and to investigate the

importance of various elements of the design. To accomplish

this objective a computer spreadsheet model that simulates

the sample design was developed. This model can be used as

a tool in planning inventories and can also be used to study

how changes in inventory design influence the total cost and

accuracy of the inventory. Recommendations for further

changes to the inventory system are given and areas where

additional research may lead to other improvements are

suggested.

Keywords: Sample design, tree measurement modeling, WI.

36. Hartsell, Andrew John. 1999. Financial returns on

timberlands in Mississippi from 1977 to 1994. Mississippi

State, MS: Mississippi State University. 85 p. M.S.F. thesis.

Source: MAI 37, no. 05 (1999): 1386. The objective of this

study is to compute the real annual rates of return from

mature, undisturbed timberlands in Mississippi during a 17-

year period (1977-1994). This is performed by using
16

SRS-FIA timber volume data and TMS data on timber

prices. Simple and adjusted financial maturity concepts are

used. The study considers the implicit costs of holding

timber. Average annual rates of change in value were

computed and compared for four forest types across the

State. The average annual rate of change in volume was also

computed for these stands and compared to the financial

rates of return. Three distinct time periods were considered:

1977-1987, 1987-1994, and 1977-1994.

The 1977 to 1987 average annual rate of return of all forest

types was 6.82 and 3.50 percent using simple and adjusted

financial maturity models, respectively. The 1987 to 1994

average annual rates were calculated to be 18.58 percent for

the simple model and 11.32 percent for the adjusted.

Average annual rates of return for the entire study period,

1977 to 1994, were 13.82 percent for the simple model, and

8.06 percent for the model using adjusted financial maturity

concepts. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Keywords: Economics, financial maturity, MS.

37. Heym, Douglas Carey. 1984. A methodology for

comparing published regional field plot data to

inventory plot data for natural hardwood stands in the

Coastal Plain of South Carolina. Ann Arbor, MI:

University of Michigan. 48 p. M.F. thesis.

Source: University of Michigan, Fox and DeWolfe (1994)

#1955. [Forest inventories.]

Keywords: Forest surveys.

38. Husain, Syed Arif. 1997. Spatial and dynamic analysis

of timber and biomass supply in Minnesota. St. Paul,

MN: University of Minnesota, Department of Applied

Economics. 184 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 58, no. 03A (1997): 1009. This research

examines the ability of commercial forest lands in

Minnesota to meet future timber demand targets and at the

same time meet hypothetical future biomass energy

requirements. It also assesses the potential for certain

agricultural lands to be converted to short rotation poplar

production so as to reduce harvest pressure on commercial

forests. Timber and biomass prices under several product

demands, resource base, and environmental constraints were

estimated.

Existing commercial forest production was modeled under

environmentally restricted and unrestricted management

practices. Agricultural lands were represented by a subset of

lands formerly in the Conservation Reserve Program.

Timber product demands at six traditional forest markets

and biomass demands at two power plants were considered.

Marginal costs of delivered timber and fuelwood products

over the planning horizon under different environmentally

restricted and unrestricted land base scenarios were

estimated using a harvest scheduling model, a transportation

model based on the actual road network, and a prescription

writer to simulate stand growth after any harvesting activity.

The output from the model is the marginal cost of delivered

timber products, location and quantity of forest and

agricultural lands harvested, and total costs of meeting the

demand target goals in each planning period. The results

indicate that industrial demand for all timber products

analyzed in this study can be satisfied over the planning

horizon, if additional agricultural lands are devoted to

poplar production. The addition is made necessary because

of aspen, for which existing industrial requirements cannot

be sustained over the planning horizon if only existing forest

lands are used. The combination of restricted forest and

agricultural lands results in higher marginal costs than the

combination of unrestricted forest and agricultural lands.

The difference in these marginal costs shows the

opportunity cost of environmental mitigation. Since it turns

out that the power plants modeled in this study would most

cost effectively acquire fuelwood from existing forest lands,

substantial savings could be achieved if the plants are

located in the northern part of the State where major

concentrations of the forest lands exist, rather than the

currently proposed southwestern locations. [Economic

timber resource assessment with a model incorporating tree

biomass and the existing road network.]

Keywords: Agricultural land, biomass, economics, location

modeling (biomass industry), MN, timber production

modeling.

39. Jakes, Pamela J. 1977. The biological and economic

potential of Minnesota’s commercial forest land to

produce timber. St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota. 72

p. M.S. (Plan B) paper.

Source: Paper copy of abstract. [This study determined the

potential biological yield and economic maturity potential of

Minnesota’s commercial forest land.]

Keywords: Economics, MN, timber production modeling.

40. Jorgensen, David O. 1997. Analysis of wood

availability from forest inventory and analysis data using

a Geographic Information System. Syracuse, NY: State
17

University of New York, College of Environmental Science

and Forestry. 106 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: MAI 35, no. 04 (1997): 0972. The U.S. Forest

Service (USFS) collects forest inventory data for each State

at intervals of 5 to 15 years. This data is used by State

forestry agencies to determine the availability of round

wood in various aerial parts of their States (woodsheds) in

support of economic development. The inventory data is

poorly suited to this purpose if analysis of areas other than

those provided by the USFS are desired. This project was

designed to provide a method of analyzing wood availability

for any region of the State (NY is the sample) using the

inventory data. A Geographic Information System (GIS,

pcARC/INFO) was the platform upon which the analysis

application was built. The application has a menu-driven

interface which allows the selection of (1) woodshed types

(circle, selection of county(s), or user-defined area) and (2)

tabular output based on species, minimum diameter (DBH),

and several other volume or biomass criteria.

Keywords: Biomass, custom software, GIS, NY, timber

supply.

41. Kapple, Douglas Clyde. 1995. Using forest inventory

and analysis data to interpret spatial patterns in a forest

management scheduling model. St. Paul, MN: University

of Minnesota. 123 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 56, no. 05B (1995): 2406. A Generic

Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) on timber

harvesting and forest management in Minnesota was

conducted in response to concern about the potential impact

of proposed increases in industrial wood consumption on

Minnesota forest resources. A harvest scheduling model that

considered the shipment of multiple timber products from

forest stands to multiple market locations synthesized

critical information for the GEIS timber supply analysis.

Analysis areas in the GEIS model were assumed to be

located at Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) ground plot

locations for the purpose of estimating transportation costs

and evaluating wood shipment options. This degree of

spatial aggregation raised concerns about whether or not the

variation in geographical distribution of forest land was

adequately represented and about the effects of locational

assumptions on harvest timing decisions for individual

stands.

A methodology was developed for utilizing FIA photo plot

information to examine the effects of spatial aggregation in

the harvest scheduling model. The methodology was refined

and applied using data that was synthesized for the GEIS

analyses. Results of this study were compared with the

results of the GEIS to identify problems with simplifying

assumptions regarding stand location and to evaluate gains

from utilizing the photo plot inventory information.

The results of this study indicated that statewide estimates

and recommendations from the GEIS model were sound, but

that deviations from assumptions about transportation

distance could affect the choice of the best management

alternative on as much as 16 percent of the timberland.

Stands most susceptible to suboptimal management

prescriptions are those with the greatest errors in assumed

location and those with lower valued products.

Keywords: Air photo, GEIS, GIS, MN, timber production

modeling.

42. Knapp, Gunnar Paulsen. 1981. The supply of timber

from nonindustrial private forests. New Haven, CT: Yale

University. 231 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 42, no. 05A (1981): 2227. Nonindustrial

private forests account for 58 percent of U.S. commercial

forest area and provide 48 percent of U.S. timber supply.

However, the determinants of management practices on and

timber supply from these forests are not well understood.

This study develops an economic model of the factors

determining private forest management and timber supply,

which may be applied to the nonindustrial private forests.

Nontimber forest outputs (amenities) are recognized

explicitly as factors affecting forestry practices and the

value of forest land. A flexible approach is provided by the

treatment of nontimber outputs as heterogeneous products,

the values of which are determined either directly in

amenities markets or indirectly in land markets. Landowners

choose those forestry practices which maximize the price of

their land, equal to the present discounted value of all future

income (including imputed income) from timber and

nontimber outputs. Differences in forestry practices between

owners and ownership classes result from differences in

valuation of timber and nontimber outputs as well as

difference in size and quality for producing timber and

nontimber outputs of the forest land allocated them by the

market.

Equilibrium in the land and timber markets determines land

and timber prices and an equilibrium path for forest

inventory over time. Harvests take place in response to

timber growth and changes in prices, keeping inventory in

equilibrium. Prices affect short-run supply primarily through

their effects upon removals from timber inventory, and

affect long-run supply primarily through their effects upon

management intensity and timber growth.
18

As predicted by the model, estimation results using crosssection time series data for New Hampshire counties

indicate that white pine timber supply per acre is an

increasing function of timber inventory per acre and the

price of timber, and a decreasing function of the price of

nontimber outputs as measured by the price of forest land.

Keywords: Amenity valuation, economics, NH, timber

production modeling.

43. Kolbe, A. 1998. A growth model for Wisconsin’s and

Michigan’s northern hardwoods, and management

implications. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin. 163 p.

M.S. thesis.

Source: J. Buongiorno, University of Wisconsin. [The study

involved an uneven-aged, multi-species matrix growth

model for northern hardwood forests (Kolbe and others

1999).]

Keywords: MI, tree growth modeling, WI.

44. Lee, Karen Jean. 1997. Hedonic estimation of

nonindustrial private forest landowner amenity values.

Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State University. 80 p. Ph.D.

dissertation.

Source: DAI 58, no. 06B (1997): 2781. Research into

nonindustrial private forest management behavior has often

focused on the relationship between harvesting decisions

and characteristics of the landowner. In addition to

landowner differences, however, private forest management

is affected by different levels of amenities present in

individual forest stands. This relationship between forest

amenity characteristics and private forest harvest and timber

supply has not been well established. This paper tests the

hypothesis that private forest landowners consider on-site

forest characteristics as amenity values in their harvesting

decisions. Landowners who value amenities may harvest

beyond the optimal financial rotation age, thus incurring

opportunity costs. Using a modified hedonic method, a

regression of opportunity costs on the forest amenity

characteristics provides estimates of the marginal value of

these amenities. Because the decision to harvest is

influenced by the amenity values present on the site,

nonindustrial harvesters are a self-selected sample and

econometric techniques were used to minimize bias in the

coefficient estimates.

Keywords: Amenity valuation and timber production

modeling, economics, NC, opportunity cost.

45. Lin, Ching-Rong. 1995. Economics and diversity of

trees and landscape in northern hardwood forests:

implications of deterministic and stochastic models.

Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin. 168 p. Ph.D.

dissertation.

Source: DAI 57, no. 02B (1995): 0792. A density-dependent

matrix model of stand growth is presented. The model was

calibrated with re-measured plots in the northern hardwood

forests in Wisconsin. Trees were divided into shade-tolerant,

intermediate, and shade-intolerant species in twelve

diameter classes. Model predictions were tested against

post-sample observations for short-term (15-year) and longterm (steady-state) accuracy.

The growth model (in deterministic form) was first applied

to study stand growth dynamics with and without

management. Starting with the current average stand state,

the predicted stand basal area of an unmanaged stand rose

steadily to a maximum, dropped gradually, and finally

reached a steady state. The time paths of basal area and tree

size diversity were highly and positively correlated. In

contrast, tree species diversity decreased when tree size

diversity and basal area increased, and vice-versa. When

harvesting was introduced, it was found that more intensive

harvest increased the diversity of tree species, while

decreasing the diversity of tree size. A 20-year cutting cycle

could produce higher economic returns than a 10-year

cutting cycle, with similar size and species diversity.

In the second part, a Markov decision process (MDP) model

was formulated to investigate the economic and ecological

consequences of alternative management regimes, under an

uncertain environment. Simulation based on the Markovian

model showed that old growth stands with the highest tree

size diversity would dominate the whole forest after a long

time period. Major natural disturbances, as well as

management, tended to increase the steady-state landscape

diversity of the maple-birch forests in Wisconsin. Compared

with the observed current cutting regimes, the economic

harvesting policy could produce much more income, while

keeping landscape and tree diversity at about the same level.

The economic returns decreased as the desired level of tree

diversity increased (especially for size diversity).

Maximization of tree diversity would have a high

opportunity cost compared with economic management

alternatives.

The MDP model is attractive for its simplicity in practice.

Its drawback is the coarseness of the system state definition.

[Data were from 613 FIA plots in maple-birch forest type

(Lin and Buongiorno 1998)].
19

Keywords: Diversity (landscape), diversity (tree species

group), economics, tree growth modeling, WI.

46. Liu, Chiun-Ming. 1988. A decisionmaking framework

for assessing atmospheric deposition impacts on regional

forest inventory. Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic

Institute and State University. 167 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 49, no. 11B (1988): 4623. A decisionmaking

framework was developed to assess atmospheric deposition

impacts on regional softwood inventory in Virginia. The

Timber Resource Inventory Model (TRIM) was used to

project future forest inventory, given initial inventory data,

yield information, and harvest request. The timber

consumption model was linked with TRIM to simulate the

interactions between timber removals and inventory levels.

Algorithm analysis, sensitivity analysis, and an a priori

analysis were used to examine the feasibility of TRIM for

projecting atmospheric deposition impacts on inventory.

Modification of growth and harvest decision variables in

TRIM allows this impact estimation.

Schumacher’s yield model was modified to develop the

timber production function according to goodness-of-fit,

minimal collinearity, and biological rationale. Crown length

was used as a surrogate of a biological factor to reflect

atmospheric deposition impacts on stand growth and yield.

The small variance inflation factor allows the crown length

elasticity to serve as a measure of the quantitative effects on

the yield table. A system of predictor equations was added to

the yield equation for simulating stand dynamics.

A consumption function approach was used to develop the

timber removals model. The Box-Cox transformation, the

stepwise regression procedure, and standard error were used

to select the functional form, predictor variables, and

estimates for the timber removals model. This removals

model was linked with TRIM for simulating the interactions

between removals and inventory levels for forest industry

and other private.

Sensitivity analysis showed that the percentage reduction of

inventory and removals is directly related to the crown

length reduction. The larger the crown length reduction, the

greater the percentage reduction of the inventory. The

percentage reduction of yield tables due to the crown length

reduction is slightly less than the overall percentage

reduction of the inventory but is slightly greater than the

overall percentage reduction of removals. The quantitative

information on atmospheric deposition impacts on crown

variables is a key to the impact estimation for inventory and

removals. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)

Keywords: Air pollution, timber production modeling, VA.

47. Lu, Hsien-Chih. 1992. Economic management of

Wisconsin’s northern hardwood forest stands: a mixedspecies model. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin.

145 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 53, no. 06B (1992): 2605. The primary

objective of this study was to investigate economically

sustainable stocking guides for the management of

Wisconsin’s northern hardwood stands. Seven stocking

guides were studied both in a deterministic environment and

in a stochastic environment.

As a first step, a mixed-species growth model was

developed for northern hardwoods species aggregated by

species, quality, and commercial value of trees. Based on

this model, an economic guide was developed to maximize

land expectation value. This guide was compared with

Arbogast’s, q-factor, diameter-limit, and high-grading

guides in terms of their economic returns and their longterm effects on stand structure and species composition.

The study revealed that, in a steady state, long-term

equilibrium situation, the economic guide yielded

substantially higher land expectation value than the other

guides and led the stand to a good condition. The Arbogast

and q-factor guides gave the lowest land expectation values.

The high-grading guide led to a very poor stand condition.

The influence of initial stand state on the forest value was

investigated by deterministic simulation. The results of the

simulations showed very small difference in forest values

obtained from the economic guide and those obtained from

the diameter-limit guides or high-grading guide. This is

because forest value is largely dependent on the early

harvests and very little on the long-term stand structure (due

to discounting).

In the real world, uncertainty exists everywhere. By adding

a random vector into the growth model, a Markov decision

process (MDP) guide was formulated to take this

uncertainty into account. This guide then was compared

with the economic (deterministic) and other guides, in a

stochastic environment. As in the deterministic case, the

difference in forest values obtained from the economic

policy and those obtained from the diameter-limit policies or

high-grading policy was small. This confirms the problem

inherent in the forest value criterion in judging forest

management policies.

The advantage of linear programming models is that these

models could contain more detailed information than the

MDP model. However, the model ignores the uncertain
20

nature of stand growth and price fluctuations as well as the

initial stand conditions. The advantage of an MDP model is

that risk factors can be introduced and managers can work

with different initial stand conditions. However, the “curse

of dimensionality” limits detailed study of forest

management.

Therefore, the recommendation of this study is to use the

MDP guide when making the cutting decisions, while

respecting the residual stand structure recommendations in

the economic guide. [Further details included in Lu and

Buongiorno (1993).]

Keywords: Diversity (tree species group), economics, WI.

48. Marcouiller, David William. 1992. Development and

use of a supply-determined social accounting matrix to

evaluate economic impacts of forest productivity on

distribution of regional factor income. Stillwater, OK:

Oklahoma State University. 284 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 54, no. 03A (1992): 1033. Scope and method

of study. The economic impact of industrial, nonindustrial,

and public timber production was assessed using a mixed

endogenous/exogenous supply-determined social accounting

matrix with specific results focusing attention on issues of

income distribution. This matrix was constructed for

McCurtain County, Oklahoma during 1985. Data sources

used during construction include mid-South forest inventory

statistics specific to McCurtain County, Timber-Mart South,

a U.S. Department of Agriculture hybrid input-output

model, published data from the U.S. Department of

Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor, and numerous

studies dealing with income distribution and transfer

payments. Experiments using the constructed social

accounting matrix apply a prespecified exogenous shock

consisting of volume increases in timber production with

forward linkages to wood processing. A predicted real

timber stumpage price effect was also analyzed. Impacts of

these experiments on the regional economic structure were

quantified using interdependency and supply-constrained

fixed-price analysis.

Findings and conclusions. An annual timber production

output increase of $16 million will contribute

[approximately] $7 million to regional factor income.

Roughly 80 percent of this finds its way into regional

household income. Timber production significantly

contributes to medium and high income households but has

little impact on low income households. Forward linkages of

timber production output change to wood processing leads

to wood processing output change of $145 million annually

which contributes [approximately] $43 million to regional

factor income. Wood processing industries contribute most

significantly to medium income households with modest

impact on low and high income households. A $31 million

timber stumpage real price increase impacts regional

households in a more limited fashion due to significant

leakages from the region. Leakages of real price increases

from the region are most significant from timber stumpage

on industrial private forest lands. The real price effect shows

more significant impact on high income households as

compared to the volume effect.

Keywords: Economics, OK, owner, timber production

modeling.

49. Mathews, Nancy E. 1982. The capability of U.S. Forest

Service resources evaluation in assessing small mammal

habitat. Syracuse, NY: State University of New York,

College of Environmental Science and Forestry. 138 p. M.S.

thesis.

Source: Paper copy of thesis. [The author used multivariate

statistics to investigate FIA data and small mammal

populations. Factor analysis explained 88 percent of the

variation with 285 variables across 34 plots. Habitats of 13

species were examined in relation to population estimates.

Of these, Glaucomys volans, Glaucomys sabrinus, Microtus

pensylvanicus, and Zapus hudsonius—all with restricted

habitats—were successfully modeled with FIA data.

Consistent discriminators included woody stem density by

life form class, deciduous vegetation volume, canopy

openings, litter cover, and slope gradient. The author

suggested continued refinement to increase FIA timber and

habitat variables as indices of habitat, and felt most success

was likely for wildlife species with restricted habitat

requirements.]

Keywords: NY, small mammal survey, wildlife.

50. McGuire, Michael Noel. 2000. Measuring the

perception of scarcity of the veneer log resource in the

Lake States: Illinois and Indiana. East Lansing, MI:

Michigan State University. 145 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: MAI 39, no. 02 (2000): 431. Forest industry

professionals have expressed concern about physical

scarcity and diminishing quality in veneer logs of the

preferred species’ contradicting USDA Forest Service

inventory results which report an expanding resource base.

This study examined factors influencing economic supply of

select white oak, select red oak, hard maple, ash, black
21

cherry, and black walnut veneer logs in the Lake States,

Illinois, and Indiana. Increased competition due to

international demand is placing additional pressure on

available inventory. Changing demographics are acting to

reduce supply as non-timber land uses increase in

importance. Industry professionals were queried to quantify

their perception of scarcity and determine which factors they

consider most important. The dominant perception is that

quality is decreasing. Profitable architectural and panel

grade veneer logs are perceived to be diminishing while

furniture grade veneer logs are not. Quantity is perceived to

be decreasing in the large and medium diameter classes but

increasing in the small diameter classes. Expectation is for

future real prices ten years hence to increase between 20–30

percent. Factors for the perceived scarcity ranking highest in

importance were increased international demand, previous

high grading, landowner mistrust of loggers, and increased

environmental regulations. Respondents agree that the world

demand for eastern hardwoods is strong and will continue to

grow.

Keywords: IL, IN, timber industry survey, timber quality.

51. McKnight, Susanna Akiko. 1994. Assessing the impact

of data quality on the results of spatial modeling using

sensitivity analysis: a case study using Minnesota forest

inventory data. Syracuse, NY: State University of New

York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry. 194

p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 56, no. 01B (1994): 0014. This thesis

examined data quality’s impact on a spatial model designed

to determine the suitability of a study site for pulpwood

management. The goal was to gain a better understanding of

data quality’s influence on Geographic Information System

(GIS)-based decision-making through the use of

geographical sensitivity analysis. The analysis focused on

changes in resolution and attribute error.

The resolution sensitivity analysis involved comparisons

between the original quadtree level 10 suitability map and

suitability maps generated at quadtree levels 9, 8, 7, and 6.

Comparison maps indicated that eliminated and

misclassified areas increased with increasingly coarser

resolution. The 53 operable stands depicted on the level 10

map had a total suitable cut volume of 35,135 cords. The

level 9 map did not differ from the level 10 map based on

these criteria. However, level 7 had 49, and level 6 had 38

stands. Overall, as quadtree level decreased, the number of

stands decreased, in particular, the smaller stands

disappeared. The exception was level 8 in which an

elongated stand separated and resulted in an overestimate of

54 stands and a total cut volume of 35,219 cords.

Comparisons were also made in terms of misclassified areas

that indicated cut losses or false decisions to cut stands. The

percentage of area indicating cut loss or false cut increased

with increasingly coarser resolution.

The attribute error analysis investigated the three

management prescription variables of age, site index, and

basal area per acre, and two error levels including [unknown

code 1] and [unknown code 2] percent. The results indicated

that differences exist among attributes in terms of their

sensitivity to introduced error and the impact on the decision

to cut stands. Age and site index attributes were more

sensitive to error when compared with basal area per acre.

Overall, the age variable displayed the most sensitivity to

error based on the percentage of area impacting the cut

decision and the frequency of change experienced by stands,

particularly at the [unknown code 1] percent error level.

Basal area per acre experienced the least overall frequency

of change and impact in terms of the decision to clearcut

stands. The explanation for the sensitivity of the age

attribute is associated with two major factors: (1) the critical

cutoff values of the decision trees, and (2) the predominant

pulpwood species in the study site. An examination of the

characteristics of each stand identified on the best and worst

case maps for the six perturbation sets revealed that these

stands were mostly comprised of black spruce, tamarack,

and aspen. Studying the decision trees for these cover types

revealed not only the cutoff values for age but also that age

was used to determine the cutoff values for basal area per

acre. Also, the average stand age for the study site was about

52 years while cutoff values for black spruce, tamarack, and

aspen ranged between 20 to 80 years.

Several recommendations for improving GIS reliability and

decision-making capabilities were discussed including the

conceptual design for a visual error assessment interface.

The significance of this research lies in its contribution to a

better understanding of the data quality’s influence on GISbased decision-making, particularly for forest management

applications.

Keywords: Geostatistics, GIS, MN.

52. McWilliams, William Haney. 1983. A dynamic analysis

of sawtimber availability in the Allegheny unit of

Pennsylvania: the next three decades. University Park,

PA: Pennsylvania State University. 173 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: Pennsylvania State University. [The study involved

estimation of potential sawtimber availability (Strauss and

McWilliams 1987).]

Keywords: PA, timber production modeling.
22

53. Michael, Jeffrey Alan. 1999. The Endangered Species

Act and private landowner incentives. Raleigh, NC: North

Carolina State University. 129 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 60, no. 09A (1999): 3449. Under the

Endangered Species Act (ESA), it is not illegal both to take

(kill) and damage the habitat of an endangered species. This

dissertation examines the extent to which landowners have

preemptively destroyed habitat by examining the case of the

red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW), and endangered species

that live in old growth southern pine forests. By preventing

the establishment of an old growth pine stand, the

landowner can insure that RCWs do not inhabit their land

and avoid ESA regulations that limit or prohibit timber

harvest activity. The primary, empirical thesis of the

dissertation is that the closer a landowner is to known

populations of RCWs, the more likely the landowner will

take action to destroy the habitat for RCWs by

“prematurely” cutting their pine forest. This prediction is

theoretically derived using both a two-period utility

maximization model, and a model of optimal forest rotation.

Two empirical questions are addressed: (1) how does the

potential for ESA regulation affect the harvest probability of

a particular forest plot, and (2) how does the potential for

ESA regulation affect the age at which a forest will be

harvested. The data are 1,000 individual forest plots from

the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis, a

survey of over 500 North Carolina forest landowners, and

the location of all known RCW colonies. Probit regressions

estimate the probability that a plot is harvested. OLS

regressions, corrected for harvest selection bias, estimate the

age at which a forest is harvested. In most estimates,

increases in the proximity of a plot to RCWs increases the

probability that the plot will be harvested and decreases the

age at which the forest is harvested.

Keywords: NC, owner survey, timber production modeling,

wildlife.

54. Mills, John R. 1987. An evaluation of an inventory

projection system: TRIM model predictions vs. forest

inventory field measurements in North Carolina.

Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University. 88 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: Author. [This study used FIA growth and inventory

estimates for natural pine stands in North Carolina. The

study examined data for two successive occasions and

compared that data with estimates from an age-based

empirical yield projection model (Timber Resource

Inventory Model or TRIM). The study concluded that

empirical yield curves did not represent aggregate stand

growth for natural pine stands. Further details are in Mills

(1989).]

Keywords: NC, timber production modeling.

55. Moisen, Gretchen Gengenbach. 2000. Comparing

nonlinear and nonparametric modeling techniques for

mapping and stratification in forest inventories of the

interior Western United States of America. Logan, UT:

Utah State University. 182 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 61, no. 12B (2000): 6549. Recent emphasis has

been placed on merging regional forest inventory data with

satellite-based information both to improve the efficiency of

estimates of population totals, and to produce regional maps

of forest variables. There are numerous ways in which forest

class and structure variables may be modeled as functions of

remotely sensed variables, yet surprisingly little work has

been directed at surveying modern statistical techniques to

determine which tools are best suited to the tasks given

multiple objectives and logistical constraints. Here, a series

of analyses to compare nonlinear and nonparametric

modeling techniques for mapping a variety of forest

variables, and for stratification of field plots, was conducted

using data in the Interior Western United States.

The analyses compared four statistical modeling techniques

for predicting two discrete and four continuous forest

inventory variables. The modeling techniques include

generalized additive models (GAMs), classification and

regression trees (CARTs), multivariate adaptive regression

splines (MARS), and artificial neural networks (ANNs).

Alternative stratification schemes were also compared for

estimating population totals. The analyses were conducted

within six ecologically different regions using a variety of

satellite-based predictor variables.

The work resulted in the development of an objective

modeling box that automatically models spatial response

variables as functions of any assortment of predictor

variables through the four nonlinear or nonparametric

modeling techniques. In comparing the different modeling

techniques, all proved themselves workable in an automated

environment, though ANNs were more problematic. When

their potential mapping ability was explored through a

simple simulation, tremendous advantages were seen in use

of MARS and ANN for prediction over GAMs, CART, and

a simple linear model. However, much smaller differences

were seen when using real data. In some instances, a simple

linear approach worked virtually as well as the more

complex models, while small gains were seen using more

complex models in other instances. In real data runs, MARS

performed (marginally) best most often for binary variables,
23

while GAMs performed (marginally) best most often for

continuous variables. After considering a subjective “ease of

use” measure, computing time and other predictive

performance measures, it was determined that MARS had

many advantages over other modeling techniques. In

addition, stratification tests illustrated cost-effective means

to improve precision of estimates of forest population totals.

Finally, the general effect of map accuracy on the relative

precision of estimates of population totals obtained under

simple random sampling compared to that obtained under

stratified random sampling was established and graphically

illustrated as a tool for management decisions.

Keywords: Geostatistics, GIS, RMFIA, satellite remote

sensing and FIA ground measurement.

56. Morse, Rachel L. 1999. An intensification of the forest

health monitoring program: a pilot study in two Indiana

State parks. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University. 120 p.

M.S. thesis.

Source: John Moser, Purdue University. In 1996, Indiana

joined the national Forest Health Monitoring (FHM)

program of the United States Forest Service. One aspect of

this program includes the establishment and assessment of

forest health detection plots. Periodic data collection of

health indicators on these plots provides a means to

establish baseline forest conditions and to monitor trends.

This study examined the suitability, mechanics, initial data

and adaptations for monitoring individual properties.

Detection plots for the national program are located 18

miles apart on a systematic national grid. Due to the intense

agricultural and urban fragmentation present in Indiana, 106

of the 144 detection plots in the State do not land on a

forested condition. Establishing FHM detection plots in

specific areas of interest provides forest health data for areas

not well covered by the national grid.

A prototype set of 25 forest health monitoring plots was

established in two Indiana State parks and a nearby privately

owned parcel using a new protocol. This protocol randomly

assigns plots over the entire private property and randomly

assigns plots within high use zones in the two parks. State

park properties represent a major segment of the public land

in Indiana. At present no intensive long-term forest health

monitoring occurs on these properties, but recent park

efforts make this an appropriate time to study resource

monitoring procedures.

All plots were assessed in 1997 and reassessed in 1998.

Initial growth and mortality rates were established for each

plot. From damage and crown vigor assessments, trees

displaying characteristics of eminent mortality were

identified and potential forest health problems were

discovered. These include a lack of regeneration of current

cover type species and a high incidence of decay on beech

trees. In addition, site quality data were collected concerning

ambient ozone levels, lichen communities and soil quality.

Ambient ozone levels for all study sides are high. Lichen

community and soil quality procedures were pilot studies

and detailed information concerning each is not yet

available. The findings of this study are preliminary.

Through further assessments of the same plots over time,

trends in forest health for these study sites can be

established.

[This report references traditional tree measures and

nontraditional tree crown, lichen community and soil quality

measures. It used a measurement protocol for what is now

known as FIA Phase III plot sampling. Novel is the

replication of regional monitoring procedures for site-level

inventory and management. The procedure increases the

number of objectives addressed by increasing the sample

density and remeasurement period. The protocol does not

replicate the FIA sample grid, as samples are randomly

allocated within the sites studied.]

Keywords: FHM, IN, lichens, timber production modeling,

tree crown health.

57. Murphy, Dennis Leland. 1981. A decision support

system approach to timber harvest scheduling. St. Paul,

MN: University of Minnesota. 200 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 52, no. 08B (1991): 3972. Harvest scheduling

is a decision which has critical importance for forest

management organizations. Recent research addressing

harvest scheduling has developed information systems

which provide programmed decision output. In these

systems, harvest scheduling is approached as a structured

decision. Few information systems exist in forestry which

have been designed to provide an alternative type of

decision output: decision support.

An information system was designed to support a normative

decision model of the harvest scheduling decision process

for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Support was provided for both the planning and operations

levels of management. Two applications of a database

management system were designed, incorporating available

forest inventory data: a planning level inventory and a unitarea level inventory. The natural and logical database

structure designs reflect two differences in the inventories:

the specific data collected in each and the role of the

inventory in the normative decision model.
24

The information system was applied to a case study of the

State ownership class aspen forest type in the Minnesota

Aspen Birch Survey Unit. Stand selection rules were

developed to meet silvicultural or managerial objectives for

the aspen type. The rules assigned priorities to timber

management classes; the alternative rules required different

levels of information detail with respect to the timber

management classes. The classes were developed by

partitioning the aspen plots according to relevant plot

characteristics; the partitions produced different patterns of

information which were then used in the assignment of

harvest priorities.

A tree growth processor simulated timber harvests for each

of the stand selection rules. The simulations projected yields

over three 10-year planning periods. A timber management

evaluation table summarized the predicted results for the

alternative schedules. The schedules were ranked according

to the following factors: the production of hardwood

volume, softwood volume, and combined volume for the 30-

year period; the discounted values projected for each

alternative; and the interperiod continuity of the hardwood,

softwood, and combined product volumes. This ranking

provided a method to determine preferences for the

alternative stand selection rules.

The decision support system enables the management

personnel to explicitly test alternative harvest schedules by

simulation of heuristic rules. The method provides an option

for analysts who design timber management information

systems.

Keywords: MN, tree growth modeling.

58. O’Brien, Renee Allen. 1987. Prediction of secondary

cavity-nester habitat: a test of the forest survey data

base. Logan, UT: Utah State University. 52 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: Paper copy of abstract from author. [The objectives

of the study were to determine FIA data utility for

identifying and evaluating secondary cavity-nester habitat,

and to test the validity of an index of food and nesting

habitat suitability. Sampling involved 1985 bird census

counts at 12 FIA plots at each of two study areas (Kaibib

Plateau and Mt. Trumbull). Individual habitat components

(canopy cover, tree height, foliage volume, and snag

density) and an index of habitat suitability were

characterized using FIA inventory data. Individual habitat

variables as well as suitability were then compared with

actual bird numbers. Variation in summer habitat

characterization was large, and likely due to timber

management practices. Habitat suitability explained some

variation at Mt. Trumbull but none of the variation at Kaibib

Plateau.]

Keywords: Birds, dead trees, RMFIA, wildlife.

59. Ohmann, Janet Lynn. 1996. Regional gradient analysis

and spatial pattern of woody plant communities in

Oregon. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University. 196 p.

Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 57, no. 03B (1996): 1577. Knowledge of

regional-scale patterns of plant community structure and

controlling factors is largely qualitative and based on

numerous local studies. Data from a subsample of 10,000

field plots were used to quantify and map compositional

gradients of woody plant communities across Oregon

forests. Canonical correspondence analyses explained 9-14

percent of the total species variation at three geographic

scales. Climate contributed most to total variance explained

(44-58 percent), followed by geology (6-16 percent),

disturbance (7-13 percent), and topography (4-8 percent).

The dominant compositional gradient was associated with

climate, from the lower elevation, moderate, maritime

climate of the coast to the higher elevation, drier, continental

climate of the interior. The second canonical axis followed a

gradient from the warm, dry growing seasons of the interior

valleys and eastern Cascades, to cooler, wetter mountainous

areas. Only those parent materials that present extreme

growing conditions, primarily ultramafic soils, were

significant at the regional level.

Ecological relationships differed substantially among

subregions within the State. Except for topography, which

contributed more to explained variation at finer geographic

scales, ecological differences among subregions

overshadowed effects of geographic extent. Topographic

effects were stronger and beta diversity greater in eastern

Oregon, where moisture is more limiting for plant growth,

and weakest near the coast where climate is more favorable.

The secondary importance of topography, disturbance, and

substrate can be attributed to their influence on relative

abundances of species within a local area, rather than on

species presence or absence within broader regions.

Community structure varied at a finer spatial scale in eastern

than in western Oregon, and species turnover along

gradients was greater for shrubs than trees. Amount of

unexplained variation in the species data was high but not

atypical of gradient analyses. Yet spatial structure in the

species data that was uncorrelated with explanatory factors

suggests potential to improve the canonical correspondence

analysis models, particularly in eastern Oregon.
25

Study findings have implications for considering biological

diversity in regional conservation strategies, in planning for

global climate change, and in the design of regional

inventory and monitoring programs.

Keywords: Diversity (woody plant), ecological landtype

classification, GIS, OR, soils.

60. Okoye, Michael Anayo. 1997. Ecological database

development and analyses of soil variability in northern

New England. Durham, NH: University of New Hampshire.

172 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 58, no. 12B (1997): 6467. The 1983 Forest

Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data of the States of Maine,

New Hampshire and Vermont (the study area) contain large

amounts of field-measurements of many ecologically

important variables. Despite the vast potential usefulness of

the FIA data for scientific research, the data were until now,

literally unused except for a few administrative purposes,

because of problems in the way the data were organized,

summarized, and coded for storage. The primary objective

of this research was to solve the problems that had thus

precluded these FIA data from use in scientific applications,

and present the data in a form that is readily accessible and

usable for research. This objective was achieved by adapting

the un-summarized data in a relational database

management system (RDMS) and Geographic Information

System (GIS). RDMS-GIS technologies would make these

data amenable to more types and multiple spatial scales of

analyses than previously possible, thus providing the

scientific community with an unusually large, high quality,

and spatially referenced data set.

The FIA data also contain field and laboratory

measurements of soil properties made at the geo-referenced

FIA plot locations. These soil data also provided the basis

for other studies in this dissertation. These studies included

analyzing the spatial variability of selected soil attributes in

the study area; evaluating the nature of the differences in

specific soil properties among the ecological land

classification map (ECOMAP) section and subsection units;

and assessing the variability of specific soil properties in the

NRCS-State Soil Geographic Database (STATSGO) of the

study area. Both the ECOMAP and the STATSGO studies

involved the use of GIS techniques and multivariate

statistical methods for map unit analyses.

This dissertation also included more theoretical

investigations relating to applied statistics and soil science.

One of these addressed the unanswered question of whether

or not it is necessary to use non-linear transformations prior

to computing variability statistics from non-normally

distributed soil data, and explored the use of coefficient of

variation as a semi quantitative index of nonnormality in

soil variables. Another study looked at why and how error

matrices and related statistics can be used as an effective,

comprehensive quantitative method of evaluating soil

classification and soil map quality.

Keywords: Custom software, GIS, ME, NH, soils

(STATSGO), VT.

61. Othic, Scot T. 1981. Conversion of forest land in the

Missouri Ozark region. Columbia, MO: University of

Missouri. 90 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: University of Missouri. [Not available. Reference is

Othic and others (1982).]

Keywords: Land use, MO.

62. Owens, Karen Elizabeth. 2001. Development and

analysis of current and presettlement forest cover

mapping methods for the eastern Upper Peninsula of

Michigan, Luce District. Houghton, MI: Michigan

Technological University. 215 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 62, no. 03B (2001): 1158. Continuous forest

cover maps for an area located in the Luce District of the

Upper Peninsula of Michigan were generated from two

different forest point datasets using different spatial and

geostatistical interpolation methods. The two forest datasets

interpolated were current Forest Inventory and Analysis

(FIA) data collected in 1993 and pre-European settlement

General Land Office survey (GLO) data. Given the

relationship that exists between soil and site factors, like

drainage and slope, and predominant forest types, ancillary

soils information were utilized to provide neighborhoods of

influence for each of the interpolation methods. Three

interpolation methods were applied to the FIA data:

Thiessen Polygons (TP), Inverse Distance Weighting

(IDW), and Indicator Kriging (IK). The results of the three

interpolation methods were compared using the FIA data to

assess the differences in outputs and final maps. Final

interpolated forest maps were then compared to a landcover

map derived from Landsat TM imagery collected in 1991

and calculations of forest type areas generated by a

FIAMODEL (Reed and others 2001) model to judge the

appropriateness and success of each procedure. Based on the

success of two of these methods, IDW and IK were applied

to the GLO data. The interpolated output and final forest

maps from the GLO data were also compared to assess any
26

results in total softwood price increases (174 percent) that

are less than one-fourth of those produced by the base

projection (788 percent). Improvements can be made with

better quality and availability of data on projected pine

plantation areas and the extent of current and projected level

of intensive management in pine plantations.

Keywords: Economics, SRSFIA, timber production

modeling.

64. Parks, Peter John. 1986. The influence of economic

and demographic factors on forest land use decisions.

Berkeley, CA: University of California. 96 p. Ph.D.

dissertation.

Source: DAI 48, no. 05A (1986): 1272. Forest land

decisions in North Carolina and Oregon are related to

economic and demographic factors through the use of

discrete choice models. A trinomial probit model allowing

correlation among land use alternatives and neighboring

land owners is developed. Forest-nonforest land use

transitions in North Carolina are shown via a binomial

model to depend on economic returns, population density,

concentration of population in urban areas, and the rates of

forest growth. Land use allocation among forest, agriculture,

and other uses in Oregon is shown via probit and logit

models to depend on these factors and on correlation among

alternatives.

A supply schedule for nonindustrial forest land (NIPF) is

constructed from the North Carolina model and combined

with a schedule of forest land demand to demonstrate that

decreased forest land conversion is a response of land

owners to economic incentives. Equilibrium levels of forest

land are 8.4 percent below 1974 levels, indicating that

USDA Forest Service projections of a 13.3 percent decrease

for the State may be too high for this region.

The model for Oregon is used to evaluate the consistency

between Forest Service projections of the private forest land

base in Oregon and prices for Pacific Northwest softwood

stumpage. Simulations using price projections of 1.01

percent per year bring about an increase in the forest land

base similar in magnitude to increases in industrial forest

lands seen from 1960 to 1970. In general, predictions of

decreases in the forest land base appear exaggerated unless

real increases in agricultural returns or transportation

distances are also expected.

Keywords: Economics, land use, NC, OR, population

density, timber production modeling.

differences in methods and their outputs. Final forest maps

were compared to manually generated MNFI pre-European

settlement maps to assess the differences. For both datasets,

IDW performed the best in delineating all forest groups

occurring in the study area while IK performed well for

mapping only those forest groups occurring most frequently.

IDW maintained the local spatial information and IK

mapped more regional patterns of forest occurrence.

Keywords: Geostatistics, GIS, GLO, MI.

63. Pacheco Lopez, Gerardo. 1996. Empirical modeling of

timber supply in the United States. Raleigh, NC: North

Carolina State University. 215 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 57, no. 12B (1996): 7292. Chapter 1

characterizes the US South forest resource from the

perspective of empirical timber supply modeling.

Summaries of relevant timber supply indicators at the

South-wide, State, and survey region level, for the common

forest types, species groups, and ownerships are provided as

guidelines for the commonly used levels of aggregation in

modeling. An assessment is made of the use of Eastwide

data base data from the USDA Forest Service for timber

supply modeling.

Results from a South-wide timber supply projection to the

year 2020 are examined and compared against national

projections in chapter 2. Individual State inventories were

updated to 1994 as a common starting point for the

projection. Only private ownerships were considered in the

model. Softwood prices are projected to increase seven

times and hardwood prices over two and a half times over

the projection period. The largest projected price increases

for softwoods occur during the decade 2010 to 2020.

Inventory of softwoods is projected to decrease by 30

percent relative to the starting year, and hardwoods to

increase only by 2 percent. South-wide softwoods growth to

removal ratio is expected to decline from 0.94 to 0.71, and

from 1.36 to 0.87 for hardwoods. Price projections are

sensitive to growth per acre assumptions. Results are

conservative in that they assume constant productivity levels

in planted pine forest types.

Chapter 3 examines the effects of differing assumptions

about the future productivity levels of pine plantations.

Empirical models of growth and yield are developed for

each of the major forest types with the purpose to evaluate

the impact on empirical timber supply projections from

possible increases in the productivity of pine plantations of

20, 40, and 60 percent by the year 2020. Total increases of

60 percent in pine plantation growth per acre projection
27

65. Parresol, Bernard Ross. 1998. Sample-based forest

landscape diversity indices. New Orleans: Louisiana State

University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. 126 p.

Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 59, no. 06B (1998): 2525 and author. Studies

of spatial patterns of landscapes are useful to quantify

human impact, predict wildlife effects, or describe various

landscape features. A robust landscape index should

quantify two distinct components of landscape diversity:

composition and configuration. One category of landscape

index is the contagion index.

A generalized measure of contagion is defined as a function

of concentration. From this definition two contagion indices,

 (a new index) and 2

 (an entropy formulation), are

derived from expected values of geometric random

variables. A widely used relative contagion index, RC2 is

shown to be a scaled version of 2.

Distributional properties of Gˆ

1

, Gˆ

 2 , andGˆ2 (scaled) (i.e. RC2

)

are derived. They are shown to be asymptotically unbiased,

consistent, and asymptotically normally distributed.

Variance formulas for Gˆ

1

,

 Gˆ2

, and Gˆ

2 (scaled) are derived using

the delta method. A Monte Carlo study using subseries

analysis and replicate histograms, for variance and

distribution assessment, was done as a validity check.

Behavior of 1 , 2 , and RC2 were investigated with

simulated random, uniform, and aggregated landscapes.

Both 1 and 2 provide acceptable measures of contagion.

The index RC2 is shown to be an index of evenness, and not

of contagion. It is demonstrated that relativized contagion

indices are mathematically untenable.

As an application, the pattern and changes in forest cover

types over the last two decades were analyzed on three

landscape level physiographic provinces of the State of

Alabama: (i) The Great Appalachian Valley Province, (ii)

The Blue Ridge-Talladega Mountain Province, and (iii) The

Piedmont Province. The USDA Forest Service conducts

periodic surveys of forest resources nationwide from plots

distributed on a 3-mile by 3-mile (4.8-km by 4.8-km) grid

randomly established within each county. Using forest

inventory and analysis survey data on forest cover types,

stratified by physiographic province, the Gˆ

1 and Gˆ2

contagion values and their variances were calculated for

each province for the survey years 1972, 1982, and 1990.

One-way analysis of variance was used for hypothesis

testing of contagion values across time and between

provinces. Contagion values were very similar indicating

similar processes operating across the physiographic

provinces over the last two decades. In comparing Gˆ

1

 and

G

G

G

G

G G

G

>

Gˆ

2,, use of Gˆ1

 in analysis of variance gave a more

conservative test of contagion.

Keywords: AL, geostatistics, patch indices.

66. Pelkki, Matthew Harold. 1992. Developing conceptual

information system models for natural resources. St.

Paul, MN: University of Minnesota. 226 p. Ph.D.

dissertation.

Source: DAI 53, no. 01B (1992): 0026. Two techniques for

information requirements determination were examined and

compared during a case study of the Minnesota Department

of Natural Resources Division of Forestry’s data planning

and database design projects. An accelerated technique was

used to develop a data plan for the division of forestry, and

an extended design process was used to develop the detailed

conceptual data model for the division’s forest inventory

database.

Each process was observed and survey tools were used to

evaluate user responses to each process. Evaluation criteria

were established and applied to the results to evaluate the

effectiveness of the two information requirements analysis

techniques.

The results of these comparisons indicate that extended

techniques are much more likely to produce high quality

data models in either the data planning or data design

process. Recommendations for selection of an analysis

technique are presented, along with potential effects and

interactions with novice facilitators and task complexity and

size. The study also introduces a conceptual information

model for forest data, and examines the presence and impact

of artifacts on conceptual database models.

Keywords: Custom database, MN.

67. Piazza, Marco. 2000. Diversity-productivity relations

in the northern hardwoods of Wisconsin and Michigan.

Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin. 54 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: J. Buongiorno, University of Wisconsin. [This study

examined timber productivity by tree species group.]

Keywords: Diversity (tree species group), MI, timber

productivity, WI.

68. Plantinga, Andrew J. 1988. The determinants of

changes in nonindustrial private forest landowners.

Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin. 60 p. M.S. thesis.

1
28

Source: J. Buongiorno, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

[A subsequent paper (Plantinga and others 1989) referenced

between-survey changes in FIA estimates of forest area for

Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and associated that

data with ownership, population, and income levels.]

Keywords: MI, MN, owner, population density, WI.

69. Powell, Douglas S. 1990. Temporal and spatial

variation in tree demography and species composition

based on forest inventories of Maine. Durham, NC: Duke

University. 267 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 52, no. 02B (1990): 0627. This study addressed

three general problems: (1) present an ecological description

of Maine’s forests, (2) characterize population parameters

under various biotic, abiotic, and disturbance conditions, and

(3) investigate relationships between disturbance and species

composition.

Data were from 769 permanent plots measured in 1957,

1969, and 1981 as part of ongoing statewide forest

inventories. While data provided new characterizations of

forest land by climate, soil, slope, elevation, and

productivity, ordination techniques revealed that some

environmental variables important for explaining forest

community structure were not gathered. Analyses identified

problems with productivity classifications and which site

variables provided redundant information. Species

abundances best fit a geometric series distribution,

supporting the niche pre-emption hypothesis of division of

community resources.

A four-stage matrix population model estimated population

growth and survival/mortality rates for balsam fir, red

spruce, and red maple. Elevation, soil site quality, and

rooting depth had no consistent influence on population

parameters. Higher stocking levels led to lower population

growth and survival rates, and shade tolerance was not a

dominant factor determining species response. Harvest had a

greater impact than natural disturbance. Balsam fir was

affected most by disturbance. The assumption of timehomogeneous transition probabilities in stationary Markov

chains is invalid in many situations, and projections can

vary widely without proper accounting of disturbance.

Results showed a decline of spruce-fir populations between

1957 and 1981, which may be explained by multiple factors

(e.g., species longevity, disturbance, and air pollution).

A new technique of coupling detrended correspondence

analysis and Euclidean distance dissimilarity measure was

used to evaluate relationships between disturbance and

species composition of red spruce-balsam fir stands. Much

of the variation of successional paths across the 23-year

period was due to various types and severities of

disturbance, but many other factors were important. There

were no significant differences between shorter intervals

with respect to compositional change. Results indicated that

cutting changed composition more than natural disturbance.

Increased spruce budworm activity resulted in an increased

rate of succession, with balsam fir declining relative to red

spruce. More specific data on disturbance would enhance

the value of forest inventories in studying forest succession.

Keywords: Air pollution, diversity (tree species), ecological

landtype classification, ME, soils.

70. Ramirez-Maldonado, Hugo. 1988. On the relevance of

geostatistical theory and methods to forest inventory

problems. Athens, GA: University of Georgia. 179 p. Ph.D.

dissertation.

Source: DAI 49, no. 09B (1988): 3531. The theory and

methods of geostatistics are presented and discussed in the

context of forest inventory. Geostatistics provides a

theoretical framework to evaluate resources based on the

identification of regionalized variables, which are in turn

assumed to be realizations of random functions (stochastic

or random fields) in order to allow their evaluation under

probabilistic sampling. Geostatistical methods account for

spatial correlation within the sample. Many forest

characteristics can be identified as regionalized variables

and their evaluation can be accomplished using such theory

and methods.

The geostatistical methods can provide more precise

estimates than methods which assume independence among

the sampling units because forest sampling units are

correlated if they are close together with a correlation that

diminishes with distance. The independent-plot estimation

method is a particular case of this broader class and

represents the absence of such spatial correlation.

The basic tool in geostatistics is the variogram function,

which is the variance of the difference between two

observations when interpreted as a random function. This

variance is assumed to be a function of the distance between

the two realizations. The appropriate modeling of this

function is a crucial step in geostatistics.

The variogram for basal area measured by the Bitterlich

method (point sampling) can be efficiently fitted to the

spherical model. The smoothness of the function produced

by this method of measurement is inversely related to the

basal area factor (BAF), and the univariate variance is

almost linearly related to it. Smoother functions yield
29

smaller estimation variances, so that disregarding other

considerations a small BAF should be preferable over a

larger one.

The geostatistical methods are shown to be appropriate for

analyzing the 10-point cluster sampling plan used by the

U.S. Forest Service and, in general, they can be

recommended for any two-stage sampling scheme.

A new theoretical framework for the traditional point

sampling procedure based on the Bitterlich method of

measurement is presented. This approach expresses point

sampling as a multinomial process, for which explicit and

feasible variance formulas can be deduced.

Keywords: Geostatistics (subplot), GIS.

71. Randolph, KaDonna C. 2000. An evaluation of forest

health monitoring analytical techniques and data for two

Indiana State parks. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue

University. 134 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: Author. The effectiveness of the US Forest Service

Forest Health Monitoring Program analytical techniques for

documenting change was examined with data from a smallscale study in two Indiana State parks, Shades and Turkey

Run. Three aspects of the FHM analyses were examined: (1)

height prediction and volume estimation, (2) changes in

crown characteristics, and (3) annual growth and mortality

estimation. Additionally, present volumes and a ratio

describing the diameter distribution of dead trees were

calculated for each park.

It was found that the FHM height prediction procedure over

predicted the heights for six species groups: hemlock, red

maple, sugar maple, white oaks, and two mixed hardwood

groups. Improvements in the predicted heights were made

for all but one of these groups when the FHM conditioning

process was omitted from the height prediction procedure.

Volumes estimated with both sets of heights were not

significantly different from each other.

Three measures of crown condition were examined for

change over time and equality of change over time between

the parks. No significant changes over time (a = 0.10) were

found in either park for crown dieback, softwood foliage

transparency, and crown density. There was no significant

change over time in hardwood foliage transparency in

Turkey Run State Park. An estimated increase of 1.841

percent in foliage transparency was detected for hardwoods

in Shades State Park. Further examination revealed that the

significant changes were in hickory and black cherry trees.

The tests for equality of change over time between the parks

resulted in no significant differences.

Annual growth was estimated as 266.09 cubic feet per acre

in Shades, and 66.79 cubic feet per acre in Turkey Run. In

Shades, annual mortality was estimated as 30.45 cubic feet

per acre. No mortality was recorded between 1997 and 1999

in Turkey Run. Present live volume in Shades and Turkey

Run was estimated as 4786.16 cubic feet per acre and

4792.70 cubic feet per acre, respectively. The diameter

distribution of dead trees indicated that mortality in Shades

was most likely the result of natural thinning and in Turkey

Run, the result of natural senescence.

[This report references traditional tree growth and mortality

measures and nontraditional dead tree and tree crown

measures. It used a measurement protocol for what is now

known as FIA Phase III plot sampling. The replication of

regional monitoring procedures for site-level inventory and

management is novel. The procedure increases the number

of objectives addressed by increasing the sample density and

remeasurement period. The protocol does not replicate the

FIA sample grid, as samples are randomly allocated within

the sites studied.]

Keywords: Dead trees, FHM, IN, timber production

modeling, tree crown health.

72. Resh, Sigrid. 1994. Assessing the availability of

timberland for harvest in the Lake States. East Lansing,

MI: Michigan State University. 201 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: MAI 33, no. 05 (1994): 1444. Both public and

private owners of timberland choose not to harvest timber

due to various market conditions, resource conditions,

management objectives, and concerns regarding the effects

of harvesting. Timber supply analyses based on forest

inventory data do not typically reflect these exclusions from

timberland causing an overestimation of available

timberland for timber production. Land managers of the

Lake States’ national forests, DNRs, counties, and private

lands are surveyed for their expert judgment concerning

current and the year 2020 availability of lands for timber

harvest and factors affecting the availability. Additional

information is also provided pertaining to the predictions of

cover types on lands not available for harvest in the year

2020 as well as management trends on public and private

forest land. Statewide summaries show that timberland

available for harvest is predicted to decrease on both public

and private lands. Social constraints and environmental

factors are the major factors perceived to be causing the

predicted decrease.

Keywords: Harvest probability, MI, owner survey.
30

73. Riley, Gretchen. 2000. Evaluation of Landsat TM

generated forest-type map for tax appraisal purposes.

College Station, TX: Texas A&M University. 33 p. M.S.

thesis.

Source: Texas A&M University, 2000 thesis R56. A tax

appraisal system of private timberland based on the

productivity value of the timber relies on current, accurate

information about the land being assessed. Historically, such

information has been supplied by aerial photos and field

surveys. These methods are time-consuming, expensive,

often out-of-date, and must be converted to digital data in

order to be utilized in a Geographic Information System

(GIS). This study hypothesized that satellite-based products

and technology would generate a forest-type map that would

provide accurate acreage estimates of forest types for tax

appraisal purposes. Accuracy of over 91 percent was

achieved for a forest-type map generated from leaf-off

Landsat TM imagery relative to aerial photo reference data.

Forest-type data obtained through traditional methods were

compared to TM data of various minimum mapping units

and determined to be less precise than the satellite foresttype data. Elimination of the pine-hardwood mixed forest

type for individual tracts and making each tract have

percentage estimates of the pine and hardwood components

may be a more precise evaluation of land cover due to the

finer resolution of satellite imagery.

Keywords: GIS, satellite remote sensing, TX.

74. Rosson, James Forrest, Jr. 1999. An analysis of the

temporal dynamics in tree species diversity for major

tree taxa of two States in the midsouth, United States of

America. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee. 226 p.

Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 60, no. 09B (1999): 4375. An analysis of the

temporal dynamics of tree species diversity was made for

empirical forests of the States of Arkansas and Mississippi,

USA. These two States each had four comprehensive,

variable radius plot measurements over a period of three

decades. In addition to tree species data, the surveys

provided three physiographic categories, three ownership

categories, and five stand-size classes. Two measures of tree

species diversity were applied to the survey data: (1) tree

species richness; and (2) the McIntosh measure of evenness.

The Sorensen quantitative index of similarity was used to

contrast tree species changes between survey periods.

Repeated measures ANOVA tests were conducted to test for

significant differences in diversity measures across time and

between specific group strata. All tests were conducted at

the 0.05 probability level. Maps showing spatial distribution

were created to show patterns of the three diversity

measures across each State. Major findings from this study

showed tree species richness levels have declined at the

State level for Arkansas and Mississippi. This was

confirmed by examination of the empirical evidence and

results from the repeated measures ANOVA test (p =

0.0001). Arkansas tree species richness declined by 3.4

percent since 1968, and Mississippi tree species richness

declined 10.6 percent from its highest level in 1977.

An additional important revelation was the notable impact

plantations were having on tree species richness at the State

level. Tests were conducted to discern differences in species

richness by contrasting data sets which included plantations

with data sets that excluded plantations. The data showed

that the increasing implementation of plantation forestry is

having a negative impact on the overall average tree species

richness for each State.

The absence of harvesting allowed forest land to increase in

tree species richness. Plots that had no harvesting activity

over the four survey measurements (survivor plots),

significantly increased in tree species richness. Arkansas

tree species richness increased on these plots by 21.6

percent between 1968 and 1995 while Mississippi increased

43.8 percent from 1967 to 1994.

Tree species richness has declined in these two mid-South

States during four survey measurements covering the mid

1960s to the mid 1990s. The study did not use a causal

inference design but did test statistical hypotheses to

confirm real differences in the data. Corroborative evidence,

supported by empirical evidence in the data, suggests that

intense and increasing forestry practices (harvesting and

plantation forestry) have attained a level high enough to

contribute to the reduction in overall tree species diversity in

Arkansas and Mississippi. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Keywords: AR, diversity (tree species), land use intensity

(harvest and tree plantations), MS.

75. Rubin, Benjamin Dana. 1999. Predicting growth rate

and relative importance of common tree species in the

Adirondacks from environmental variables. Syracuse,

NY: State University of New York, College of

Environmental Science and Forestry. 88 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: MAI 37, no. 05 (1999): 1399. Environmental

conditions that affect a tree’s success do so by modifying its

energy profit. Therefore, environmental variation throughout

a population should explain variation in energy profit, and

hence population success. I evaluated population success
31

based on patterns of importance value (IV) and radial

growth rates of 12 common tree species in the Adirondack

Mountains along 7 environmental gradients, including: air

temperature, soil moisture, solar radiation, site productivity,

stand age and stand basal area. Air temperature was the best

predictor of IV for most species. Air temperature, soil

moisture, stand age and stand basal area were the best

predictors of growth rate. Significant trends were more

common for growth rate than IV on private land. Analysis of

IV on an independent dataset found more distinct patterns of

IV on protected State land than on private land. Analysis of

a third dataset revealed that tree diseases are associated with

reduced growth rates. [The study uses data from FIA,

FHM’s Adirondack survey in 1996, and the Huntington

Wildlife Forest Continuous Forest Inventory (HCFI).]

Keywords: Ecological landtype classification, FHM, NY,

tree growth modeling, tree species.

76. Scarpa, Riccardo. 1999. Assessing the amenity value of

forests, with applications to Wisconsin and Ireland. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin. 140 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 61, no. 02B (1999): 613. The objective of this

research is the valuation of the amenity function of forests.

In Wisconsin northern hardwoods forests, the goals are (i) to

develop a method to compute the amenity value (non-timber

value) of uneven-aged forests; (ii) to determine how

individual stand characteristics, and those of its owner,

influence non-timber value; (iii) to apply the methods to the

maple-birch forest type. In Irish forest parks, the goals are

(i) to estimate willingness to pay for recreation with stated

and revealed-preference methods; (ii) to investigate the

effects of forest attributes on these estimates, with particular

regards to the effects of nature reserves and the practice of

benefit transfer; and (iii) to compare estimates of recreation

values obtained by different methods and correlate them

with aesthetics indices.

The proposed measure of non-timber value (NTV) for

Wisconsin uneven-aged forests is the opportunity cost of

timber revenue foregone. This is revealed by the actual

harvest decisions of the owner, in contrast with the potential

profit-maximizing decision. This concept is applied to

Wisconsin plots of the USDA Forest Inventory. The actual

revenues are computed for each plot, and subtracted from

the profit-maximizing revenues predicted with the model of

Lin and Buongiorno (1998), giving data on the magnitude

and distribution of non-timber value throughout the State.

Hedonic pricing is used to estimate the amenity value of

different forest characteristics.

In the Irish application, data from a large scale forest

recreation survey are used to estimate models of stated

willingness to pay for forest recreation from discrete choice

contingent valuation. An estimated model is used to predict

benefits from creation of nature reserves in forests currently

without one. The reliability of benefit transfer from CV

models is investigated. Benefit estimates from CV analyses

are compared with analog estimates based on the travel cost

method. In both sets of estimates the effect of forest

attributes is investigated. Finally, welfare estimates are

compared across methods and with alternative quality

indices of aesthetic value. Benefit estimates are found to be

congruent with economic theory and positively correlated.

CV is found to produce benefit estimates often transferable

between forests.

Keywords: Amenity valuation, economics, opportunity cost,

recreation, WI, willingness-to-pay.

77. Schreder, Peter Todd. 2000. Overstory/understory

relationships in old growth grand fir habitat types of

northeast Oregon. College Station, TX: Texas A&M

University. 64 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: Texas A&M University, 2000 Thesis S37.

Information regarding the dynamics of overstory/understory

relationships in managed forests is required to support

ecologically-based management of multi-resource

production systems. The goal of this project was to define

overstory/understory relationships existing on northeast

Oregon industrial forests. Greater understanding of the

impact of silvicultural practices on forest fauna is needed.

Information is also needed on how to acquire data to

develop ecologically-based multi-resource management

plans. This project establishes quantitative relationships

between overstory density and understory composition,

production, and structure, and relates these to herbivore

carrying capacity and productivity in managed forests. For

this study, 76 stands in grand fir and mixed conifer forests

were sampled randomly in two forested allotments. Plot

clusters were established in each of the selected forest

stands using a four-plot cluster design (Scott and Bechtold

1995). Plots were evaluated for trees per hectare, tree height,

tree live crown ratio, diameter at breast height, shrub density

and cover, and herbaceous grass and forb yield and cover.

The resulting data were analyzed statistically and a number

of relationships appeared to exist between tree overstory and

understory vegetation. Separating forest stands into forest

ecotypes appeared to enhance the number of relationships as

well as enhance the significance of overstory/understory

relationships. Several attributes of tree overstory appeared to

significantly influence understory vegetation and ground
32

surface attributes of forest stands in northeastern Oregon

industrial forests. In planning future timber harvest,

consideration should be given to the spatial arrangement of

tree overstory and the physical dimension of trees left in a

stand. If predictive equations developed in this study are

valid, shrub and herbaceous understories valuable as food

habitat for a number of herbivore users can be developed.

Consequently, any negative effect of timber harvest on these

herbivores can be mitigated. [This report references several

measurement protocols for what is now known as FIA Phase

III plot sampling. Novel is the modeling of overstory/

understory relationships. The protocol does not replicate the

FIA sample grid, as samples are randomly allocated within

the sites studied.]

Keywords: Ecological landtype classification, FHM,

herbaceous vegetation, OR, shrubs.

78. Schulte, Benedict Joseph. 1997. The SouthPro

computer program: effects of uneven-aged silviculture

on the stand structure, species composition and

economic returns on loblolly pine stands. Madison, WI:

University of Wisconsin. 199 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: J. Buongiorno, University of Wisconsin. [Findings

from the author’s thesis appeared in Schulte and others

(1998, 1999). From Schulte and others (1999), nonlinear

programming models of uneven-aged loblolly pine were

developed to identify management regimes which optimize:

1) soil expectation value (SEV), 2) species group

(softwoods, hard hardwoods, soft hardwoods) diversity, or

3) annual sawtimber yields. Model was calibrated with FIA

data from 991 mixed-aged, naturally generated loblolly pine

remeasurement plots. This variation on growth and yield

modeling recognized three species groups (loblolly pine and

other softwoods, soft hardwoods, and hard hardwoods), 13

diameter-at-breast-height size classes, and three timber

productivity classes. Results indicated that maximum yield

varied with potential productivity. Optimizations in which

SEV is maximized subject to species group diversity

constraints suggested tradeoffs between economic returns

and diversity objectives.

SouthPro is a Microsoft Excel add-in program that simulates

the management, growth, and yield of uneven-aged loblolly

pine stands in the Southern United States. This manual

provides suggestions for working with Excel, describes

program installation and activation of SouthPro, and gives

background information on the SouthPro growth model. The

manual includes a comprehensive tutorial that explains how

to start the program, enter simulation data, generate BDq

distributions, manipulate setup files, execute single and

multiple simulations, plot summary statistics, and produce

stock-and-cut tables and marking guides. Limitations of the

model and appropriate interpretations of its predictions are

discussed.]

Keywords: Diversity (tree species group), economics,

SOFIA, timber productivity, tree growth modeling.

79. Scott, Charles Thomas. 1977. Unequal probability

sampling for updating inventory estimates. Athens, GA:

University of Georgia. 62 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: Not available.

Keywords: Sample design (updating).

80. Scott, Charles Thomas. 1981. Design of optimal twostage multiresource surveys. St. Paul, MN: University of

Minnesota, Department of Forestry. 138 p. Ph.D.

dissertation.

Source: DAI 42, no. 06B (1981): 2153. Many public and

private organizations are becoming involved in

multiresource surveys, and many others are sampling

multiple attributes of a single resource. Planners of these

surveys are faced with many choices with respect to

sampling design, some of which are: (1) selection rule; (2)

selection probabilities; (3) stratification rule; (4) number of

sampling units to be selected; (5) number of subunits within

a sampling unit; (6) distance between subunits; and, (7) size

of subunits. The survey planner is asked to choose the best

combination of these based on the costs involved and the

variance structures of the populations being sampled. For

any but the simplest of problems, this is a difficult task.

A multiresource two-stage sampling design model is

presented which attempts to optimize the first stage sample

allocation and second-stage sampling unit design for several

resource attributes simultaneously. The objective is assumed

to be to minimize total survey cost, subject to specified

precision levels on the attributes of interest. Equal

probability selection is assumed at each stage. An integer

nonlinear programming technique is used. Applications of

the design model to the U.S. Forest Service Northeastern

Forest Resource Survey are presented.

Keywords: NEFIA, sample design (multicriteria).
33

81. Sheffield, Raymond Marshall. 1978. Techniques for

using regional multiresource inventory data to evaluate

nongame bird habitat. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State

University. 76 p. M.F. report.

Source: North Carolina State University and author. [The

objectives of this study were to adapt literature-based

breeding habitat accounts to indices associated with FIA

measurements and timber management activities. The author

suggested qualitative indices—good, acceptable, poor, and

unsuitable—based on measures interpreted from a literature

review of nine bird species’ breeding habitats. In Sheffield

(1981), each timberland sample was grouped into habitat

classes based on the number of criteria satisfied for the

species. The author applied these criteria as an example to

characterize area and ownership class of South Carolina

forests for nine bird species. The author also used maps to

illustrate the distribution of potential habitat suitability of

FIA timberland sample plots. FIA attributes included live

tree stocking, density (stems and basal area), and stand age;

understory tree and shrub cover (foliage profile estimation

procedures); fire occurrence; physiographic condition, and

nearby permanent or temporary water.]

Keywords: Birds, habitat suitability index, SC, shrubs,

water, wildlife.

82. Shifley, Stephen Richard. 1990. Analysis and modeling

of patterns of forest ingrowth in the North Central

United States. St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota. 168

p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 51, no. 09B (1990): 4131. Ingrowth is defined

as the number or volume of trees that periodically grow into

the smallest measured size class of a forest stand. This work

presents a model to predict the number of ingrowth trees at a

variable threshold diameter for six forest vegetation types.

The model is based on observations on 2,373 remeasured

inventory plots from 8 sources in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana,

and Ohio.

The number of ingrowth trees decreases significantly with

increasing threshold diameter. Linear estimators of the

number of ingrowth trees as a function of stand density and

size structure characteristics, when restricted to observations

for a single forest type and threshold diameter, were often

significant (alpha = 0.05) but R-square values were low,

generally less than 0.3. The concept of crown competition

factor was used to set a biologically realistic upper limit on

the number of ingrowth trees. Maximum crown competition

values were estimated, and the difference between the

maximum crown competition factor and a stand’s current

crown competition factor was used to predict the maximum

possible number of ingrowth trees at a given threshold

diameter. The actual number of ingrowth trees [per acre per

decade] was estimated for six forest types as a function of

the maximum possible number of ingrowth trees and the

threshold diameter.

Fitted models were highly significant for all forest types and

the general shape of the response surface is biologically

realistic. Precision of the estimates is low, due to the large

variation found in ingrowth observations. On average, 65

percent of the ingrowth trees are of the same species as one

of the trees present in the overstory of the parent stand. The

percent distribution of ingrowth trees by species group was

calculated for each stand and used to calibrate a system of

models predicting the percentage of ingrowth trees in each

of 31 species groups. Predictions are based on the species

groups found in the parent stand. The coefficients developed

for this system of models can be used to compute the

relative frequencies of ingrowth trees in each of 31 possible

ingrowth species groups. Graphical comparisons show a

high degree of correspondence between the observed

ingrowth species distribution and the distribution predicted

from this system of equations.

Keywords: IL, IN, MO, NCFIA, OH, tree growth modeling.

83. Shih, Tian-Ting. 1992. A spatial and ecological

decision support system for central upland hardwood

management. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University. 236 p.

Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 54, no. 01B (1992): 0016. Due to the

increasing demands of non-timber values and natural

conservation in forestry from the public, forest management

becomes more complex. As multiple resource management

has been emphasized in the current forestry issues, more

textual and spatial data and more complicated and broader

knowledge on managing these interacted resources are

required.

Knowledge-based systems (KBS), which have the ability to

store valuable and relevant knowledge from field experts

and research papers, are playing an important role in the

decision-making process. Geographic Information Systems

(GIS), which have efficient spatial analysis capabilities, can

be used to combine conventional information systems and

maps when managing forest resources. The inventory data

of forest resources can be easily stored, retrieved,

manipulated, and updated from database systems (DBS) to

provide the basic inputs to GIS and KBS. To fully utilize the

advantages of these computer-based information systems

(CBIS), decision support systems (DSS) can be used to
34

provide a framework which can more effectively connect

the spatial data analysis with needed textual data and

supporting knowledge bases.

A spatial and ecological forest management decision support

system was designed to support decision-making on sound

silvicultural and management prescriptions for the central

hardwoods from ecosystem and multiple-use aspects. In this

research, this system was built by fully integrating the

concepts and techniques of DBS, KBS, and GIS. Through

spatial simulations and ecosystem approaches, a specific

ecological site classification system (ESCS) was developed

to delineate forest tracts into ecological landtypes. Based on

these ESC landtypes, the current forest conditions, the

desired forest conditions, and the management constraints

can be retrieved and manipulated by several knowledgebased inventory and information extraction programs. After

these processes, these programs will provide geo-referenced

silvicultural and management recommendations on multiple

forest resources.

With a user-friendly forest management decision support

system (FMDSS) user menu, the user can control these

system operations and request printing of textual outputs

and displaying of basic, analyzed, and simulated spatial

imagery. These results provide valuable information to

support forest managers’ decision-making on their forest

properties.

Keywords: Custom software design, custom database,

ecological landtype classification, GIS.

84. Sieg, Gregory Edwin. 1988. Incorporating GIS

topographic information in forest inventory estimates.

Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State

University. 79 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

[Forest inventories.]

Keywords: Forest surveys, GIS.

85. Smith, Jonathan Henry. 1992. Utility of a vector

Geographic Information System to model the effects of

climate change: an example on New York State’s forests.

Syracuse, NY: State University of New York, College of

Environmental Science and Forestry. 169 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: MAI 31, no. 03 (1992): 1121. This study identifies

the benefits of using a vector Geographic Information

System (GIS) to model the impacts of climate change on

New York State’s forests. Global climate change threatens

the composition and survival of ecosystems by killing the

present vegetation and determining which new species may

colonize an area. In order to gauge the effects of climate

change, models must be formulated now if we are to

successfully manage our forests through any impending

crisis. GIS are thought to be one part of the modeling

solution.

Biomass figures for six species were calculated for plots

from New York State, from U.S. Forest Service inventory

data. Growing degree days were calculated for 125 weather

stations, in and around the State. A Triangular Irregular

Network was produced from the weather station data and

used to calculate the growing degree days at the location of

the plots. This data and the biomass were then used to

simulate the effects of increasing temperature on the

biomass of the plots. The model was run with and without

an increase of 3 degrees Celsius over 50 years.

Keywords: Biomass, climate change (biophysical), GIS, NY.

86. Smith, Marie-Louise. 2000. Landscape-scale

prediction of forest productivity by hyperspectral remote

sensing of canopy nitrogen. Durham, NH: University of

New Hampshire. 70 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 61, no. 04B (2000): 1748. Foliar nitrogen

concentration represents a direct and primary link between

carbon and nitrogen cycling in terrestrial ecosystems.

Although foliar N is used by many ecosystem models to

predict leaf-level photosynthetic rates, it has rarely been

examined as a direct scalar to stand-level carbon gain.

Significant improvements in remote sensing detector

technology in the list decade now allow for improved

landscape-level estimation of the biochemical attributes of

forest ecosystems.

In this study, relationships among forest growth

(aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and

aboveground woody biomass production (AWBP)), canopy

chemistry and structure, and high resolution imaging

spectrometry were examined for 88 long-term forest growth

inventory [FIA] plots maintained by the USDA Forest

Service within the 300,000 ha White Mountain National

Forest, New Hampshire.

Analysis of plot-level data demonstrates a highly predictive

relationship between whole canopy nitrogen concentration

(g/100 g) and aboveground forest productivity (ANPP: R2 =

0.81, p < 0.000; AWBP: R 2 = 0.86, p < 0.000) within and

among forest types. Forest productivity was more strongly

related to mass-based foliar nitrogen concentration than with

either total canopy N or canopy leaf area.
35

Empirical relationships were developed among spectral data

from the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer

(AVIRIS) and field-measured canopy nitrogen concentration

(mass basis). Results of this analysis suggest that

hyperspectral remote sensing can be used to accurately

predict foliar nitrogen concentration, by mean of a fullspectrum partial least squares calibration method, both

within a single scene (R2 = 0.84, SECV = 0.23) and across

a large number of contiguous images (R2 = 82, SECV

= 0.25), as well as between image dates (R2 = 0.69, SECV

= 0.25).

Forest productivity coverages for the White Mountain

National Forest were developed by estimating whole canopy

foliar N concentration from AVIRIS spectral response.

Image spatial patterns broadly reflect the distribution of

functional types, while fine scale spatial variation results

from a variety of natural and anthropogenic factors. This

approach provides the potential to increase the accuracy of

forest growth and carbon gain estimates at the landscape

level by providing information at the fine spatial scale over

which environmental characteristics and human land use

vary.

Keywords: Biomass, NFS, NH, satellite remote sensing and

FIA ground measurement, soils.

87. Sousa, Claudio Ney Martins de. 1994. Modeling

economic impacts of climate change on U.S. forests.

College Station, TX: Texas A&M University. 149 p. M.S.

thesis.

Source: Texas A&M University, 1994 Thesis S725. Climate

change is expected to modify forest growth. As a result, the

forestry sector of the United States could be affected. The

primary objective of this study was to examine the

economic impacts of climate change on the U.S. forestry

sector to develop estimates of the magnitude of climate

change benefits and costs in the U.S. forestry sector.

Secondarily, this study developed a methodology using a

forestry sector model to develop such estimates. A set of

possible climate change scenarios was chosen and an

existing forest sector model was used to run these scenarios.

After analyzing the results, it was concluded that climate

change can significantly alter the welfare of the forestry

sector; however, the economic implications of climate

change vary substantially depending on the assumptions

about how climate affects trees. Total welfare impacts range

from losses of 162 billion dollars to gains of 136 billion

dollars. Because of the broad range of economic impacts,

this research identifies the need for further investigation of

the impacts of climate change on forest biological dynamics.

Also, the impacts on welfare tend to be, larger in the future;

depicting an intergenerational problem. Three additional

findings are important. First, the management intensity

under which producers choose to operate as well as the

regional distribution of production are shown to be sensitive

to climate change. Producers intensify management

intensity when climate-induced productivity is decreased

and reduce management when productivity is increased.

Production shifts to the North in most scenarios. Second,

public cut and Canadian imports were found to affect the

economic impacts of climate change on the U.S. forestry

sector. Third, the methodology used proved to be valuable in

studying the economic impacts of climate change on U.S.

forests. The model depicts important economic adjustments

to the conditions imposed by climate change. Namely,

production levels, price levels, management intensity, and

the regional distribution of production vary as climate

change modifies the conditions of the market. Any modeling

framework conceived to study the economic impacts of

climate change on U.S. forests ought to have these features.

[Direct use of FIA data is uncertain.]

Keywords: Climate change (economics), United States.

88. Straka, Thomas James. 1981. A long-run timber output

projection model for the nonindustrial private forest

sector. Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and

State University. 181 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 43, no. 01B (1981): 0004. The nonindustrial

private forest sector controls 58 percent of the Nation’s

commercial forest area. Timber output from the NIPF has

been a major forest policy issue throughout this century. A

long-run regional timber output projection model was

developed for the NIPF sector. The model was based upon

two key assumptions: (1) forest management intensity and

timber output are inversely related to the forest landowner’s

alternative rate of return, and (2) for the NIPF sector, the

alternative rate of return is inversely related to the size of

forest holding.

The timber output model was based on a cross classification

of NIPF land by its physical characteristics (e.g., forest type)

and economic characteristics (e.g., landowner’s alternative

rate of return). The stratification objective was to create

strata with a uniform timber output response to changes in

the above characteristics. If the total forest resource is

thought of in terms of a matrix, each characteristic serves as

a stratification dimension, creating a matrix composed of

“homogeneous timber output response cells.” The values of

each cell can be used as observations in a regression

analysis projecting NIPF timber output.
36

For the NIPF, the size of forest holding would be a primary

stratification dimension. Due to the relationships described

above, stratification by size of forest holding constitutes

stratification by the landowner’s alternative rate of return.

Also, since the forest resource is physically uniform, the

expected rate of return (marginal value growth percent) of

the forest will be uniform within a cell. NIPF landowners

base their timber output decision on the relationship

between the expected and alternative rates of return,

resulting in a convenient forest policy analysis tool. The

model was applied to a study region, Virginia’s Coastal

Plain, with satisfactory results.

Keywords: Timber production modeling, VA.

89. Sullivan, Neal H. 2001. An algorithm for a landscape

level model of mast production. Columbia, MO:

University of Missouri. 293 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

http://www.snr.missouri.edu/~sullivan/dis_direct.html. [Date

accessed: October].

Source: University of Missouri. Masting is the reproductive

habit inherent to some tree species where populations

produce large seed crops in some years and small seed crops

in others. This dissertation addresses two areas of oak mast

production: i) formulating an approach to modeling mast

production at a landscape scale and ii) evaluating the impact

on tree growth when trees allocate resources to mast

production. The model of mast production operates upon the

predictions of forest structure and composition over large

areas and long time-spans generated by the landscape model

LANDIS. Forest inventory data (of local and national

origin) are used to characterize the predicted size structure

and species composition of oak subgenera based on stand

age and ecological land type. This information is used to

predict the potential mast production based on a diameteracorn production relationship and assumed probabilities of

inherent tree-level variability in mast production. Estimates

of potential mast production are further stochastically

modified to incorporate annual variation due to

hypothesized: i) climatic conditions (freezing temperatures,

humidity, and the temperature regime) during critical phases

of flowering and acorn development, ii) random mastlimiting events (hail, insects, wind, and drought), and iii)

phenological differences in acorn development between the

red and white oak groups (Erythrobalanus and

Lepidobalanus).

Sensitivity analysis suggests that estimates of the proportion

of trees in each subgenus strongly influenced estimates of

mast production. Estimates of mast production were less

sensitive to the modeled diameter-age relationship and treedensity estimation. The model was tested on a 3,216 ha

landscape southern Missouri. The masting model generates

predictions that are within one order of magnitude of values

observed in other studies (50 to 500 kg ha -1) and

comparisons of differences in mast production among

ecological land types also conform to results from other

studies. Due to the high degree of variability associated with

the age-diameter relationship, a better description of the

relationship would improve the model.

Intensive measurement of changes in diameter on in situ

branches and correlated acorn production provided the most

reliable indicator of the hypothesized tradeoff between mast

production and vegetative growth. More data and more

intensive data would be required to quantify the trade-off

between acorn production and the subsequent year shoot

growth.

Keywords: Mast production modeling, MO, tree species,

wildlife.

90. Thiede, Gerald Joseph. 1979. An interactive forest

inventory, supply and demand model for timber

roundwood in Wisconsin. Madison, WI: University of

Wisconsin. 167 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: J. Buongiorno, University of Wisconsin. [Portions

are published in Thiede and Buongiorno (1982).]

Keywords: Timber production modeling, WI.

91. Tredinnick, John. 1995. A spatial equilibrium

approach to forecasting State timber supply in the

Southern United States. Gainesville, FL: University of

Florida. 163 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

[This study used a national model to project State level

resource and market conditions, as reported in Tredinnick

and Carter (1995).]

Keywords: Timber production modeling.

92. Tuazon, Raul Naranja. 1992. An econometric analysis

of nonindustrial timber supply: implications of

demographic change. Berkeley, CA: University of

California. 105 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 53, no. 10A (1992): 3615. This study develops

a market model of aggregate nonindustrial timber supply for

California that explicitly includes landowner characteristics
37

that have been shown to influence individual harvest

decisions. A supply equation incorporates aggregate

measures of landowner income, age and parcel size, along

with price and inventory, within an econometric supply and

demand model. The model is a quasi-spatial, time seriescross sectional analysis using county-level data. Alternative

demand equations are used to test the model’s sensitivity to

assumptions about sources of timber supply, monopsony and

other market imperfections.

The results indicate that the level of inventory has the most

consistent effect on nonindustrial timber supply. Increasing

inventory will most likely lead to increasing supply, all other

factors being constant. The elasticity of supply with respect

to inventory levels ranges from 0.57 to 0.77. Stumpage price

does not have a clear, strong effect on nonindustrial timber

supply, based on the results of this study. These results are

plausible, given past theoretical and empirical studies of

landowners.

Landowner income and age showed consistent, negative

effects on timber supply, although the estimated parameters

were not highly significant. The results provide an

indication of the relative trade-offs between increases in

inventory and increases in landowner income and age.

Elasticity of supply with respect to income was estimated at

-0.87.

The results are not sensitive to assumptions about market

competitiveness. County-level data allowed for a more

detailed analysis of nonindustrial timber supply than what

has been used in the past. It is unlikely that a more

disaggregated data set would be reasonably available or

provide additional insight into market level dynamics. The

study results must be tempered with the understanding that

county-level data may not adequately reflect landowner

characteristics, and may introduce intervening variables

such as county zoning or local attitudes towards timber

harvesting.

It is unlikely that econometric modeling of timber markets,

by itself, will add a great deal to current discussions about

sustainable forest systems, landscape integrity and natural

diversity. A better understanding of market forces and

landowner behavior regarding timber supply must be placed

within the greater context of sustainable ecosystem

management.

Keywords: CA, economics, harvest probability (county),

owner survey.

93. Vollmer, Mary A. 1986. Developing regional

information from forest survey data: a pilot study using

Tug Hill. Syracuse, NY: State University of New York,

College of Environmental Science and Forestry. 186 p. M.S.

thesis.

Source: State University of New York, Thesis V619. [Forest

surveys.]

Keywords: Forest surveys.

94. Watts, Stephen Earl. 2001. Determining forest

productivity and carbon dynamics in southeastern Ohio

from remotely-sensed data. Columbus, OH: Ohio State

University. 138 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 61, no. 12B (2001): 6258. There has been a

great deal of interest recently in using forests to sequester

carbon emitted by burning of fossil fuels. However, accurate

data on net primary productivity and biogeochemical

cycling of regional forests with good spatial resolution are

currently unavailable within Ohio. Basing this study on

southeastern Ohio ecosystems, there were four major

objectives. First, develop methodology to utilize the Forest

Inventory and Analysis (FIA) and State Soil Geographic

(STATSGO) data at a spatial resolution of 30 m. Second,

determine how well data on forest productivity correlate

with remotely-sensed and soil characteristics data at a

spatial resolution of 30 m. Third, use the above correlations

to predict forest productivity at a spatial resolution of 30 m

from remotely-sensed and soils data. Fourth, calculate the

predicted aboveground annual carbon storage in the forests

of southeastern Ohio at a spatial resolution of 30 m from the

forest productivity data.

Land cover, slope, and aspect were used to select the FIA

plots that had the best spatial accuracy. Interpolation

techniques were used to smooth the boundaries between soil

classification units. There was a significant correlation

between remotely-sensed soil characteristics variables and

annual basal area increment (adjusted R2 = 0.40, p < 0.001).

Validation of this model also showed a significant

correlation (R2 = 0.30, p < 0.001). Predicted annual basal

area increment in forested areas ranged from 0 to 1.12 m2

per ha with a mean of 0.14 m2 per ha, resulting in an

estimate of 103,381 M2 for the entire study area, which was

26 percent higher than when calculated from the FIA

database. Although nonforested areas were not included in

the data analyses, the mean annual predicted annual basal

area increment (0.02 m2 per ha) was significantly lower in

non-forested areas than in forested areas. Predicted

aboveground annual biomass increment in forested areas

ranged from 0 to 6475 kg per ha with a mean of 1401 kg per

ha, resulting in a total of 1,029,228,000 kg for the study

area. Predicted aboveground annual carbon increment in

forested areas ranged from 0 to 3224 kg per ha with a mean
38

of 698 kg per ha, resulting in a total of 512,556,000 kg for

the entire study area. The total annual aboveground carbon

storage was approximately one-fourth the annual carbon

emissions from a single coal-fired power plant located in the

study area.

Keywords: Biomass, climate change (biophysical), OH,

satellite remote sensing, soils (STATSGO).

95. Wayman, Jared Paul. 2000. Landsat TM-based forest

area estimation using iterative guided spectral class

rejection. Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic Institute

and State University. 69 p. M.S. thesis. http://

scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05262000-13410035/

unrestricted/WaymanETD.pdf. [Date accessed: September

2001].

Source: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

In cooperation with the USDA Forest Service Southern

Research Station, an algorithm has been developed to

replace the current aerial-photography-derived FIA Phase 1

estimates of forest/non-forest with a Landsat Thematic

Mapper-based forest area estimation. Corrected area

estimates were obtained using a new hybrid classifier called

Iterative Guided Spectral Class Rejection (IGSCR) for

portions of three physiographic regions of Virginia.

Corrected area estimates were also derived using the

Landsat Thematic Mapper-based Multi-Resolution Land

Characteristic Interagency Consortium (MRLC) cover maps.

Both satellite-based corrected area estimates were tested

against the traditional photo-based estimates. Forest area

estimates were not significantly different (at the 95 percent

level) between the traditional FIA, IGSCR, and MRLC

methods, although the precision of the satellite-based

estimates was lower. The estimated percent forest area and

the standard error (respectively) of the estimates for each

region and method are as follows: Coastal Plain- Phase 1

66.06 and 1.08 percent, IGSCR 68.88 and 2.93 percent,

MRLC 69.84 and 3.08 percent; Piedmont- Phase 1 63.87

and 1.91 percent, IGSCR 65.52 and 3.50 percent, MRLC

59.19 and 3.83 percent; Ridge and Valley- Phase 1 69.74

and 1.22 percent, IGSCR 70.02 and 2.43 percent, MRLC

70.53 and 2.52 percent.

Map accuracies were not significantly different (at the 95

percent level) between the IGSCR method and the MRLC

method. Overall accuracies ranged from 80 to 89 percent

using FIA definitions of forest and non-forest land use.

Given standardization of the image rectification process and

training data properties, the IGSCR methodology is

objective and repeatable across users, regions, and time and

outperforms the MRLC for FIA applications.

Keywords: Air photo and satellite remote sensing, VA.

96. Weiler, Katherine S. 1994. Demographic change and

forest resources: implications for the Lake States. West

Lafayette, IN: Purdue University. 80 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: Paper copy of report. [This report’s chief value is an

extensive literature review linking population to forest

density and associated commodity, ecological, public-use,

amenity, spiritual values. The author used AtlasGIS, and

AtlasPro with data sets (Census Bureau summary tape files

3a, and county-level FIA area statistics for Michigan,

Minnesota, Wisconsin) to examine relationships with forest

area change. Preliminary comparisons were made by

National Forest System (NFS) and non-NFS, and Standard

Metropolitan Statistical Association (SMSA) and nonSMSA counties by SMSA region. Results were

inconclusive. Correlations between population growth and

FIA forest area change suggested an inverse linear

relationship between population growth and forest area for

NFS and SMSA counties, but not for all counties in a given

State.]

Keywords: Amenity valuation, MI, MN, NFS, population

density, WI.

97. Wendt, Daniel G. 1999. Relating landscape indices of

forest fragmentation to large scale forest assessment

data. St. Cloud, MN: St. Cloud State University. 77 p. M.S.

thesis.

Source: Author. Recent developments in the Forest Service’s

Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) system make it possible

and more feasible to collect forest fragmentation data [i.e.,

size, amount of edge and connectivity between forest

patches] on a large-scale basis and to include this data in the

inventory database. Land use/land cover maps produced

from Landsat TM data by the national GAP program for

Illinois and Indiana are used to produce forest fragmentation

indices. The index values are sampled by use of the new FIA

hexagon grid, then summarized and presented in tables

according to FIA unit and ecological section. Distribution

maps of the fragmentation indices were also produced. The

FIA data is compiled for each hexagon, as well as the

fragmentation indices, to find any relationships existing

between the data sets.

Keywords: IL, IN, patch indices, satellite remote sensing.
39

98. Williams, Richard Alan. 1990. Determining the

availability of hardwood timber on non-industrial

private forest land in southeast Texas. College Station,

TX: Texas A&M University. 212 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 52, no. 02B (1990): 0602. In some areas of the

South, including southeast Texas, non-industrial private

forest (NIPF) lands are becoming increasingly important as

sources of hardwood fiber as hardwood timber inventory

declines on forest industry company lands. The objective of

this study is to understand the motivation and characteristics

of NIPF owners who sell hardwood timber in southeast

Texas. This study, conducted in 1989, focused on the timber

sale decisions, attitudes, and outlooks of NIPF landowners

in a 12 county area of southeast Texas.

Data used for this study includes USDA Forest Service

periodic inventory data and a questionnaire administered to

a random sample of NIPF landowners. The USDA Forest

Service inventory data for the 12 county area indicates 4.4

million acres of timberland (65 percent of the total land

area) with 1525 million cubic feet of hardwood timber. In

the study area, forest industry companies control 62 percent

of the timberland acres and 58 percent of the hardwood

timber. NIPFs own 32 percent of the timberland acres and

36 percent of the hardwood timber, and public ownership

has 6 percent of the hardwood timber volume and 6 percent

of the timberland acres. The hardwood timber inventory in

the 12 county area is decreasing as removals exceed growth,

but appears to be sufficient to support current removal rates

well into the future.

Questionnaire responses from 400 NIPF landowners

revealed that 71 percent of them sold hardwood timber prior

to 1989, and these landowners owned 92 percent of the

NIPF acres in the sample. Fifty-two percent of the NIPF

owners indicated a willingness to sell hardwood timber

within the next 20 years, on ownerships containing 75

percent of the NIPF acres in the sample.

Price was found to be statistically significant in determining

the quantity of hardwood pulpwood that would be available.

A supply curve developed from questionnaire data revealed

an elastic supply relationship for hardwood pulpwood. A

subsample of 48 of the surveyed NIPF owners were willing

to sell hardwood timber at $6.07 per cord, representing 20

percent of the hardwood acres in the subsample. At

[approximately] $13.85 per cord, 50 percent of the

hardwood acres were available for harvest.

Keywords: Harvest probability, owner survey, timber, TX.

99. Woodcock, Hillary. 1993. White ash decline in

Massachusetts: the role of site and climate factors.

Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts. 169 p. Ph.D.

dissertation.

Source: DAI 54, no. 02B (1993): 0574. White ash increased

in basal area between 1962 to 1979 on continuous forest

inventory (CFI) plots in Massachusetts, but 20 percent of 82

ash plots (>10 percent basal area ash) were classified as

decline (from growth and mortality rates). Reclassification

of 18 plots on the basis of percent crown dieback in 1991

validated the decline classification system and indicated

little change in plot decline status in the past decade.

Mortality of dominant and co-dominant trees was associated

with sites characterized by a high landscape position and

soils shallow to bedrock (R2 = 0.6926, p = 0.0007).

Ephemeral streams were common; these sites would be

prone to fluctuations in moisture supply. Similar

relationships were identified on three 2 ha intensive study

sites. Distribution of decline-prone microsite types and

decline of ash was highly heterogeneous on the study sites

(but not on the CFI plots).

Tree-ring analysis showed that trees growing on “declineprone” sites were sensitive to drought (measured by growing

year Palmer Drought Severity Index) and indicated that the

present episode of decline on these sites began in the 1960s,

the most severe drought period since 1836. Ash yellows was

identified on one and possibly the second of the two study

sites with ash decline, and on two of the three decline CFI

plots resampled in 1991.

Sites with a SI > 80 supported healthy trees in 1991. For

sites with a SI < 80, a decline index estimated from

landscape position and soil moisture predicted the

distribution of decline on the two intensive study sites on

which ash decline was present and shows promise as a

method of evaluating sites for their potential for ash decline.

The relationship between decline and site factors was unique

to white ash among several species tested (i.e. it was

species-specific). On ash decline sites, red oak and sugar

maple increased in relative importance.

Keywords: Climate change (biophysical), MA, soils, timber

productivity.

100. Wu, Chin-Shien. 1994. Assessing the economic effects

of streamside management zones on the forestry sector.

Auburn, AL: Auburn University. 165 p. Ph.D. dissertation.
40

Source: DAI 55, no. 07B (1994): 2467. The purpose of this

study is to assess the economic effects of designating

streamside management zones (SMZ’s) on current timber

supplies and prices and projecting those impacts into the

future (2010). This study focused on southeast Alabama, a

21 county region established as a unique Forest Inventory

and Analysis (FIA) region by the USDA Forest Service. The

project required five Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS)

scenes acquired from the Landsat earth resources satellite.

The remotely sensed imagery covers all of southeast

Alabama. From that imagery, a supervised classification was

undertaken using the GRASS GIS software package for the

purpose of this study.

This study examines the effects of establishing SMZ’s at

three different average widths, 10 meters, 15 meters, and 25

meters. A Landsat MSS-based classified forest type map of

southeast Alabama was used to calculate area in the SMZ’s

by forest type and county. Combining FIA volume per acre

with the area in SMZ’s estimated from the GIS analysis,

yields estimates of timber volume in the SMZ’s.

The Southeastern Regional Timber Supply (SERTS) model,

an economic timber supply projection model, was run on an

IBM 486 microcomputer and a twenty-year timber supply

projection was made for southeast Alabama from 1990 to

2010. The impact of establishing SMZ’s on timber inventory

and price projections increases as the projection proceeds

through time. The impact of establishing SMZ’s on

softwood inventory projections is greater than on hardwood

inventory projections during the projection years. The

constant harvest/acreage scenario leads to a significant

decrease (16 percent) in softwood inventory and a softwood

price rise, and an increase (32 percent) in hardwood

inventory and hardwood price declines to the end of the

projection (2010). The South’s Fourth Forest harvest/

acreage scenario leads to a significant decrease (19 percent)

in softwood inventory and a softwood price rise, and an

increase (32 percent) in hardwood inventory and hardwood

price declines towards the end of the projection (2010). In

both scenarios, the effects of removing SMZ volumes on

timber price projections are very obvious for softwood but

less obvious for hardwood.

Keywords: AL, economics, GIS, proximity, satellite remote

sensing, water.

101. Zhai, Yushin. 1999. An analysis of forest fires in the

South Central United States. Mississippi State. MS:

Mississippi State University. 47 p. M.S. thesis.

Source: MAI 38, no. 04 (1999): 919. Factors influencing the

probability of fire occurrence in the South Central United

States were investigated using the Geographic Information

System (GIS) and a multinomial logit model. Forest

Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data at the plot-level were

merged with census data at the census-tract level to create a

data set containing demographic, geographic, and timberrelated characteristics for each FIA plot. Fires occurring

during the 2 years prior to the most recent FIA surveys were

typed as wildfire, prescribed fire, or unidentified fire. A

multinomial logit model was employed to estimate the

relationships between plot characteristics and the probability

of each fire category. Wildfires are more likely to occur on

public forestlands in pine or mixed pine-hardwood stands, in

sapling or seedling sized trees, and where there is easy

access. Prescribed fire is more likely to be used on public or

industrial forests, in pine or mixed pine-hardwood stands, in

recently harvested areas, on flat terrain, in sparsely

populated areas, and readily accessible areas.

Keywords: GIS, population density, SOFIA.

102. Zhang, Quanfa. 1998. The impacts of natural

disturbance and human activities on a forested

landscape in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Houghton, MI: Michigan Technological University. 126 p.

Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 59, no. 04B (1998): 1427. In this study, the

General Land Office (GLO) survey notes (1840-1856),

current land cover generated from Landsat TM Imagery

(1991), and US Forest Service, Forest Inventory and

Analysis plots (1991-1992) were used to reconstruct the

presettlement forest and examine changes in forests of the

Luce District in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan

over the past 150 years. Also, a spatially explicit model in a

Geographic Information System (GIS) was developed to

investigate the impacts of stand-replacing disturbances on

landscape patterns.

Interpretation of the GLO notes in the Luce District

demonstrated that the presettlement landscape was a mixed

conifer matrix (39 percent of total area), interspersed

primarily with northern hardwoods (29 percent), wetlands

(14 percent), fire-susceptible pinelands (13 percent), and

other cover types (5 percent). Boreal forest species

comprised 66 percent of the total witness trees in the Luce

District. The GLO surveyors recorded 104 fires and 126

windthrows which accounted for 3.1 and 2.8 percent of the

total length of the surveyed lines. Calculated rotation

periods for the entire Luce District were 480 years for fire

and 541 years for windthrow, and 7.5 percent, 24.4 percent,

and 68.1 percent of the presettlement forest were in the

stand initiation, stem exclusion, and old forest stages
41

(including both understory reinitiation and old-growth

stages), respectively.

Notable changes in species composition over the last 150

years are characterized by the increase of red maple (Acer

rubrum; +14 percent) and the decline of tamarack (Larix

laricina; -11 percent), hemlock (Tsuga canadensis; -7

percent), white pine (Pinus strobus; -6 percent), and beech

(Fagus grandifolia; -5 percent).

Simulation of a homogeneous 100 * 100 pixel landscape

with an arbitrary 500 year rotation period indicates that

landscape composition (proportion of the landscape area

allocated to various stages of stand development) is stable,

regardless of contagion, variation in annual disturbed area,

or hazard (i.e., the probability distribution of disturbance of

a given stand in relation to stand age). Variation in the

disturbed area generates a highly dynamic landscape in

terms of proportion of stands in different stages of

development, especially in the earlier stages of succession.

Disturbance hazard basically re-allocates portions of the

landscape into various successional stages, and contagion

produces fewer patches with larger maximum and average

patch size in the earlier stages of stand development.

(Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Keywords: Geostatistics, GIS, MI, patch indices, tree

species.

103. Zhou, Xiaoping. 1998. Methods for improving

timber inventory projections in Alabama. Auburn, AL:

Auburn University. 102 p. Ph.D. dissertation.

Source: DAI 59, no. 08B (1998): 3802. A new regional

timber inventory projection system (DPSupply) is presented

in this dissertation. This new system uses dynamic

programming to identify the optimal decision rule for

determining available harvest based on stumpage net present

value over a range of specified price levels. The final

harvest quantity decision is made based on the market

demand for stumpage products and cutting priorities are

based on highest net present value. Once a schedule of

available harvests is determined, harvests are simulated and

a residual inventory estimate is produced for each future

period in the projection. A comparison of the model’s

projection of inventory with FIA’s 1990 estimate of

inventory for Alabama is provided and indicates that model

estimates fall within a 95 percent confidence interval of the

FIA estimates. An example projection of Alabama’s

inventory through 2010 is also provided.

The primary data for this system include data from the

USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) work unit, the

Alabama Department of Revenue (severance tax) and

Timber-Mart South (stumpage prices). The two most recent

FIA surveys are used to develop sets of dbh (diameter at

breast height) and volume growth models by forest type and

size class, and to build sets of product proportion functions.

The Timber-Mart South data were used to construct price

equations for stumpage valuation. Timber removal levels are

estimated based on the severance tax information.

The DPSupply system has the ability to project inventory at

the product level (sawtimber or pulpwood). A multinomial

logit model was used to estimate sets of product proportion

functions to determine product volume in each stand for

each forest type and size class. This technique provides a

powerful tool for inventory projection research. All product

proportion function models contain the same variables, and

the models are used in the MANAGE module of the

DPSupply system to calculate net present value for each plot

based on the plot’s mix of products. They are also used in

the HARVEST module of the program to determine the set

of harvestable acres that should be used to meet individual

product level demands. The product proportion function

method appears robust enough to have broad application,

including adapting it to projection systems that are age

based (rather than d.b.h. based).

Severance tax data were used with the FIA removals data to

determine actual annual removal levels. Using an

adjustment procedure developed through this research, a

comparison of south Alabama adjusted removal levels with

other specifications of removals highlights the importance

of jointly using the FIA data and severance tax data to

provide more accurate inventory projections.

Keywords: AL, economics, timber production modeling.

Titles Listed by Year

Between 1974 and July 2001, graduate student reports

associated with FIA data averaged four per year, with more

occurring in recent years. A quick scan of titles reveals that

the variety of subjects has also increased over the years. For

example, timber appears in 23 reports, with the last entry in

1999—an average of 0.9 per year. The term “diversity”

appears for the first time in 1995; landscape also first

appears in 1995, and seven times thereafter—an annual

average of 1.2 reports.

1975

A quantitative evaluation of winter deer browse in southern

New Hampshire forests (Barnes #4).
42

1976

(No reports.)

1977

The biological and economic potential of Minnesota’s

commercial forest land to produce timber (Jakes #39).

Unequal probability sampling for updating inventory

estimates (Scott #79).

1978

Techniques for using regional multiresource inventory data

to evaluate nongame bird habitat (Sheffield #81).

1979

An interactive forest inventory, supply and demand model

for timber roundwood in Wisconsin (Thiede #90).

Timber supply from private nonindustrial forests: an

economic analysis of landowner behavior (Binkley #8).

1980

Forest management opportunities and associated regional

impacts for northeastern Minnesota (Erkkila #26).

1981

A decision support system approach to timber harvest

scheduling (Murphy #57).

A long-run timber output projection model for the

nonindustrial private forest sector (Straka #88).

Conversion of forest land in the Missouri Ozark region

(Othic #61).

Design of optimal two-stage multiresource surveys (Scott

#80).

The supply of timber from nonindustrial private forests

(Knapp #42).

1982

Adaptation of the stand and tree evaluation and modeling

systems of the forest resource evaluation program in the

Central States (Caprata #14).

Forest management and timber industry market equilibrium

(Cohan #19).

The capability of U.S. Forest Service resources evaluation in

assessing small mammal habitat (Mathews #49).

1983

A dynamic analysis of sawtimber availability in the

Allegheny unit of Pennsylvania: the next three decades

(McWilliams #52).

DYNARIP: a technique for regional forest inventory

projection (Bechtold #5).

1984

A comparison of diameter growth for selected tree species

among physiographic regions of Georgia (Bolton #10).

A methodology for comparing published regional field plot

data to inventory plot data for natural hardwood stands in

the Coastal Plain of South Carolina (Heym #37).

An analysis of the use of national land use inventories for

regional avian habitat assessments (Brooks #13).

Forest acreage trends in the Southeast: econometric analysis

and policy simulations (Alig #2).

Nonindustrial forests, public policy and long-term timber

supply in the South (Brooks #12).

Private timber supply projections for western Oregon and

Washington: a comparison with 1980 RPA timber supply

estimates (Flick #29).

Regional production, structure, and factor demand in the

U.S. lumber industry (Abt #1).

1985

Forest area estimation using cluster sampling in single and

two phase survey designs (Benessalah #7).

1986

Developing regional information from forest survey data: a

pilot study using Tug Hill (Vollmer #93).

The influence of economic and demographic factors on

forest land use decisions (Parks #64).

1987

A timber supply analysis for southwest Virginia (Clements

#18).

An evaluation of an inventory projection system: TRIM

model predictions vs. forest inventory field measurements

in North Carolina (Mills #54).

Prediction of secondary cavity-nester habitat: a test of the

forest survey data base (O’Brien #58).

1988

A decisionmaking framework for assessing atmospheric

deposition impacts on regional forest inventory (Liu #46).

An economic analysis of harvest behavior: integrating

ownership and forest characteristics (Dennis #23).

Incorporating GIS topographic information in forest

inventory estimates (Sieg #84).
43

On the relevance of geostatistical theory and methods to

forest inventory problems (Ramirez-Maldonado #70).

The determinants of changes in nonindustrial private forest

landowners (Plantinga #68).

1989

A dynamic matrix model for updating forest resource

inventories (Birdsey #9).

1990

A comprehensive sampling system for forest inventory

based on an individual tree growth model (Hansen #35).

Analysis and modeling of patterns of forest ingrowth in the

North Central United States (Shifley #82).

Determining the availability of hardwood timber on

nonindustrial private forest land in southeast Texas

(Williams #98).

Temporal and spatial variation in tree demography and

species composition based on forest inventories of Maine

(Powell #69).

1991

Valuation of forest-based nonmarket outputs: a cost-price

approach (Erkkila #27).

1992

A spatial and ecological decision support system for central

upland hardwood management (Shih #83).

Aerial photographic sampling for statewide resource

inventory (Catts #16).

An econometric analysis of nonindustrial timber supply:

implications of demographic change (Tuazon #92).

Developing conceptual information system models for

natural resources (Pelkki #66).

Development and use of a supply-determined social

accounting matrix to evaluate economic impacts of forest

productivity on distribution of regional factor income

(Marcouiller #48).

Economic management of Wisconsin’s northern hardwood

forest stands: a mixed-species model (Lu #47).

Utility of a vector Geographic Information System to model

the effects of climate change: an example on New York

State’s forests (Smith #85).

1993

A probabilistic evaluation of the harvesting behavior of

private timberland owners in eastern Texas (Bell #6).

Empirical evidence on efficiency in forest-related markets

(Carter #15).

Rural industrial location models for the wood processing

industry in Northeastern United States of America (Frazer

#31).

White ash decline in Massachusetts: the role of site and

climate factors (Woodcock #99).

1994

A modeling approach to spatial constraints in forest

management (Borges #11).

A tree height model for 34 species of the north central

region of the U.S. (Compte #20).

An econometric analysis of softwood stumpage supply

response to potential regional environmental changes

(Gunter #34).

Assessing the availability of timberland for harvest in the

Lake States (Resh #72).

Assessing the economic effects of streamside management

zones on the forestry sector (Wu #100).

Assessing the impact of data quality on the results of spatial

modeling using sensitivity analysis: a case study using

Minnesota forest inventory data (McKnight #51).

Demographic change and forest resources: implications for

the Lake States (Weiler #96).

Empirical validation of a forest inventory based aesthetic

value model (Freimund #32).

Hardwood timber in Mississippi: recent trends in the

resource and its use (Faulkner #28).

Modeling economic impacts of climate change on U.S.

forests (Sousa #87).

1995

A spatial equilibrium approach to forecasting State timber

supply in the Southern United States (Tredinnick #91).

Economics and diversity of trees and landscape in northern

hardwood forests: implications of deterministic and

stochastic models (Lin #45).

Using forest inventory and analysis data to interpret spatial

patterns in a forest management scheduling model

(Kapple #41).

1996

Empirical modeling of timber supply in the United States

(Pacheco Lopez #63).
44

Impacts of tornados and hurricanes on the community

structure and dynamics of North and South Carolina

forests (DeCoster #22).

Modeling and analysis of AVHRR data for biogenic

emission inventory system (BEIS) (Ediriwickrema #25).

Regional gradient analysis and spatial pattern of woody

plant communities in Oregon (Ohmann #59).

The influence of urbanization on timber harvest probability

in Mississippi and Alabama (Barlow #3).

1997

A remote sensing methodology for testing the applicability

and implementation of landscape partitioning systems

with Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer satellite

data (Cooke #21).

Analysis of wood availability from forest inventory and

analysis data using a Geographic Information System

(Jorgensen #40).

Ecological database development and analyses of soil

variability in northern New England (Okoye #60).

Hedonic estimation of nonindustrial private forest

landowner amenity values (Lee #44).

Spatial and dynamic analysis of timber and biomass supply

in Minnesota (Husain #38).

The Southpro computer program: effects of uneven-aged

silviculture on the stand structure, species composition

and economic returns on loblolly pine stands (Schulte

#78).

1998

A growth model for Wisconsin’s and Michigan’s northern

hardwoods, and management implications (Kolbe #43).

Methods for improving timber inventory projections in

Alabama (Zhou #103).

Projecting Michigan’s aspen timber resource (Cherry #17).

Sample-based forest landscape diversity indices (Parresol

#65).

The impacts of natural disturbance and human activities on

a forested landscape in the eastern Upper Peninsula of

Michigan (Zhang #102).

1999

An analysis of forest fires in the South Central United States

(Zhai #101).

An analysis of the temporal dynamics in tree species

diversity for major tree taxa of two States in the midsouth,

United States of America (Rosson #74).

An intensification of the forest health monitoring program: a

pilot study in two Indiana State parks (Morse #56).

Assessing the amenity value of forests, with applications to

Wisconsin and Ireland (Scarpa #76).

Financial returns on timberlands in Mississippi from 1977 to

1994 (Hartsell #36).

Predicting growth rate and relative importance of common

tree species in the Adirondacks from environmental

variables (Rubin #75).

Relating landscape indices of forest fragmentation to large

scale forest assessment data (Wendt #97).

The Endangered Species Act and private landowner

incentives (Michael #53).

Updating forest monitoring systems estimates (FrancoLopez #30).

2000

An evaluation of forest health monitoring analytical

techniques and data for two Indiana State parks

(Randolph #71).

Comparing nonlinear and nonparametric modeling

techniques for mapping and stratification in forest

inventories of the Interior Western United States of

America (Moisen #55).

Diversity-productivity relations in the northern hardwoods

of Wisconsin and Michigan (Piazza #67).

Efficacy of forest health monitoring indicators to evince

impacts on a chemically manipulated watershed (Eckhoff

#24).

Evaluation of Landsat TM generated forest-type map for tax

appraisal purposes (Riley #73).

Landsat TM-based forest area estimation using iterative

guided spectral class rejection (Wayman #95).

Landscape-scale prediction of forest productivity by

hyperspectral remote sensing of canopy nitrogen (Smith

#86).

Measuring the perception of scarcity of the veneer log

resource in the Lake States: Illinois and Indiana (McGuire

#50).

Overstory/understory relationships in old growth grand fir

habitat types of northeast Oregon (Schreder #77).

2001 (January-July)

An algorithm for a landscape level model of mast

production (Sullivan #89).
45

Determining forest productivity and carbon dynamics in

southeastern Ohio from remotely-sensed data (Watts #94).

Development and analysis of current and presettlement

forest cover mapping methods for the eastern Upper

Peninsula of Michigan, Luce District (Owens #62).

Landscape scale forest composition and spatial structure: a

comparison of the presettlement General Land Office

survey and the 1990 forest inventory in northeastern

Minnesota (Friedman #33).

Keyword Index

This section lists the keywords I assigned to citations. The

two-letter postal code refers to the State of the report’s study

region, if known. The five- or six-letter code references the

States corresponding to a particular FIA survey unit, as

follows:

Keyword Study region State postal code

NCFIA North Central KS, IL, IN, MI, MN,

MO, ND, NE, SD, WI

NEFIA Northeastern CT, DE, KY, MD, ME,

MA, NH, NJ, NY, OH,

PA, RI, VT, WV

PNWFIA Pacific Northwest CA, OR, WA

RMFIA Rocky Mountain AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM,

NV, UT, WY

SEFIA Southeast FL, GA, NC, SC, VA

SOFIA South Central AL, AR, LA, MS, OK,

TN, TX

SRSFIA Southern AL, AR, FL, GA, KY,

LA, MS, NC, OK, SC,

TN, TX, VA

The PNWFIA also surveys Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S.

territories of the Pacific Ocean; and SRSFIA surveys Puerto

Rico and other U.S. territories of the Caribbean Basin, but

there are no known theses or dissertations associated with

FIA surveys in these areas.

Other acronyms in the keyword list are:

Name Acronym

Breeding Bird Survey BBS

Forest Health Monitoring FHM

Generic Environmental Impact Statement GEIS

Geographic Information System GIS

General Land Office GLO

National Forest System NFS

State Soil Geographic Database STATSGO

In the following index, citations are listed after each of the

keywords with the author’s surname, year, and the citation

number:

agricultural land (Husain 1997 #38)

air photo (Benessalah 1985 #7, Catts 1992 #16, Kapple

1995 #41)

air photo and satellite remote sensing (Wayman 2000 #95)

air pollution (Ediriwickrema 1996 #25, Eckhoff 2000 #24,

Liu 1988 #46, Powell 1990 #69)

AL (Barlow 1996 #3, Parresol 1998 #65, Wu 1994 #100,

Zhou 1998 #103)

amenity valuation (Cohan 1982 #19, Freimund 1994 #32,

Knapp 1981 #42, Scarpa 1999 #76, Weiler 1994 #96)

amenity valuation and timber production modeling (Lee

1997 #44)

AR (Birdsey 1989 #9, Rosson 1999 #74)

BBS (Brooks 1984 #13)

biomass (Husain 1997 #38, Jorgensen 1997 #40, Smith 1992

#85, Smith 2000 #86, Watts 2001 #94)

birds (Brooks 1984 #13, O’Brien 1987 #58, Sheffield 1978

#81)

browse (Barnes 1975 #4)

CA (Tuazon 1992 #92)

climate change (biophysical) (Smith 1992 #85, Watts 2001

#94, Woodcock 1993 #99)

climate change (economics) (Gunter 1994 #34, Sousa 1994

#87)

custom database (Pelkki 1992 #66, Shih 1992 #83)

custom software (Bechtold 1983 #5, Jorgensen 1997 #40,

Okoye 1997 #60)

custom software design (Shih 1992 #83)
46

dead trees (O’Brien 1987 #58, Randolph 2000 #71)

decision support system (Borges 1994 #11)

diversity (all vegetative species) (Eckhoff 2000 #24)

diversity (landscape) (Lin 1995 #45)

diversity (tree species) (Powell 1990 #69, Rosson 1999 #74)

diversity (tree species group) (Lin 1995 #45, Lu 1992 #47,

Piazza 2000 #67, Schulte 1997 #78)

diversity (woody plant) (Ohmann 1996 #59)

ecological landtype classification (Ohmann 1996 #59,

Powell 1990 #69, Rubin 1999 #75, Schreder 2000 #77,

Shih 1992 #83)

econometrics (Gunter 1994 #34)

economic haul distance (Frazer 1993 #31),(Clements 1987

#18) (omitted)

economics (Abt 1984 #1; Alig 1984 #2; Carter 1993 #15;

Cohan 1982 #19; Dennis 1988 #23; Erkkila 1980 #26,

1991 #27; Faulkner 1994 #28; Gunter 1994 #34; Hartsell

1999 #36; Husain 1997 #38; Jakes 1977 #39; Knapp 1981

#42; Lee 1997 #44; Lin 1995 #45; Lu 1992 #47;

Marcouiller 1992 #48; Pacheco Lopez 1996 #63; Parks

1986 #64; Scarpa 1999 #76; Schulte 1997 #78; Sousa

1994 #87; Tuazon 1992 #92; Wu 1994 #100; Zhou 1998

#103)

FHM (Eckhoff 2000 #24, Morse 1999 #56, Randolph 2000

#71, Rubin 1999 #75, Schreder 2000 #77)

financial maturity (Hartsell 1999 #36)

forest surveys (Heym 1984 #37, Sieg 1988 #84, Vollmer

1986 #93)

GA (Bolton 1984 #10)

GEIS (Freimund 1994 #32, Kapple 1995 #41)

geostatistics (Franco-Lopez 1999 #30, McKnight 1994 #51,

Moisen 2000 #55, Owens 2001 #61, Parresol 1998 #65,

Zhang 1998 #102)

geostatistics (subplot) (Ramirez-Maldonado 1988 #70)

GIS (Barlow 1996 #3, Borges 1994 #11, Franco-Lopez 1999

#30, Frazer 1993 #31, Friedman 2001 #33, Jorgensen

1997 #40, Kapple 1995 #41, McKnight 1994 #51, Moisen

2000 #55, Ohmann 1996 #59, Okoye 1997 #60, Owens

2001 #61, Ramirez-Maldonado 1988 #70, Riley 2000

#73, Shih 1992 #83, Sieg 1988 #84, Smith 1992 #85, Wu

1994 #100, Zhai 1999 #101, Zhang 1998 #102)

GLO (Friedman 2001 #33, Owens 2001 #61)

habitat suitability index (Sheffield 1978 #81)

harvest probability (Resh 1994 #72, Williams 1990 #98)

harvest probability (county) (Tuazon 1992 #92)

harvest probability (plot) (Barlow 1996 #3, Bell 1993 #6,

Cherry 1998 #17, Dennis 1988 #23)

herbaceous vegetation (Schreder 2000 #77)

IL (Caprata 1982 #14, McGuire 2000 #50, Shifley 1990

#82, Wendt 1999 #97)

IN (McGuire 2000 #50, Morse 1999 #56, Randolph 2000

#71, Shifley 1990 #82, Wendt 1999 #97)

land use (Alig 1984 #2, Othic 1981 #62, Parks 1986 #64)

land use intensity (harvest and tree plantations) (Rosson

1999 #74)

lichens (Eckhoff 2000 #24, Morse 1999 #56)

location modeling (biomass industry) (Husain 1997 #38)

location modeling (timber industry) (Frazer 1993 #31)

MA (Woodcock 1993 #99)

mast (Barnes 1975 #4)

mast production modeling (Sullivan 2001 #89)

ME (Eckhoff 2000 #24, Okoye 1997 #60, Powell 1990 #69)

MI (Cherry 1998 #17, Kolbe 1998 #43, Owens 2001 #61,

Piazza 2000 #67, Plantinga 1988 #68, Resh 1994 #72,

Weiler 1994 #96, Zhang 1998 #102)

MN (Benessalah 1985 #7, Borges 1994 #11, Erkkila 1980

#26, Franco-Lopez 1999 #30, Freimund 1994 #32,

Friedman 2001 #33, Husain 1997 #38, Jakes 1977 #39,

Kapple 1995 #41, McKnight 1994 #51, Murphy 1981 #57,

Pelkki 1992 #66, Plantinga 1988 #68, Weiler 1994 #96)

MO (Othic 1981 #62, Shifley 1990 #82, Sullivan 2001 #89)

MS (Barlow 1996 #3, Faulkner 1994 #28, Hartsell 1999

#36, Rosson 1999 #74)

NC (Carter 1993 #15, Catts 1992 #16, DeCoster 1996 #22,

Lee 1997 #44, Michael 1999 #53, Mills 1987 #54, Parks

1986 #64)

NCFIA (Compte 1994 #20, Shifley 1990 #82)

NEFIA (Brooks 1984 #13, Frazer 1993 #31, Scott 1981 #80)

NFS (Borges 1994 #11, Carter 1993 #15, Smith 2000 #86,

Weiler 1994 #96)

NH (Barnes 1975 #4, Dennis 1988 #23, Knapp 1981 #42,

Okoye 1997 #60, Smith 2000 #86)
47

NY (Jorgensen 1997 #40, Mathews 1982 #49, Rubin 1999

#75, Smith 1992 #85)

OH (Shifley 1990 #82, Watts 2001 #94)

OK (Cooke 1997 #21, Marcouiller 1992 #48)

operability (Faulkner 1994 #28)

opportunity cost (Lee 1997 #44, Scarpa 1999 #76)

OR (Flick 1984 #29, Ohmann 1996 #59, Parks 1986 #64,

Schreder 2000 #77)

owner (Alig 1984 #2, Bell 1993 #6, Binkley 1979 #8,

Marcouiller 1992 #48, Plantinga 1988 #68)

owner survey (Dennis 1988 #23, Michael 1999 #53, Resh

1994 #72, Tuazon 1992 #92, Williams 1990 #98)

PA (McWilliams 1983 #52)

patch indices (Parresol 1998 #65, Wendt 1999 #97, Zhang

1998 #102)

planning (spatial constraints) (Borges 1994 #11)

PNWFIA (Cohan 1982 #19)

population density (Barlow 1996 #3, Parks 1986 #64,

Plantinga 1988 #68, Weiler 1994 #96, Zhai 1999 #101)

proximity (Barlow 1996 #3, Borges 1994 #11, Wu 1994

#100)

recreation (Erkkila 1991 #27, Freimund 1994 #32, Scarpa

1999 #76)

reforestation program impact (Brooks 1984 #12)

remote sensing (Catts 1992 #16)

RMFIA (Moisen 2000 #55, O’Brien 1987 #58)

sample design (Hansen 1990 #35)

sample design (air photo) (Benessalah 1985 #7, Catts 1992

#16)

sample design (multicriteria) (Scott 1981 #80)

sample design (updating) (Scott 1977 #79)

satellite remote sensing (Cooke 1997 #21, Ediriwickrema

1996 #25, Riley 2000 #73, Watts 2001 #94, Wayman 2000

#95, Wendt 1999 #97, Wu 1994 #100)

satellite remote sensing and FIA ground measurement

(Franco-Lopez 1999 #30, Moisen 2000 #55, Smith 2000

#86)

SC (DeCoster 1996 #22, Sheffield 1978 #81)

SEFIA (Alig 1984 #2, Bechtold 1983 #5)

shrubs (Eckhoff 2000 #24, Schreder 2000 #77, Sheffield

1978 #81)

small mammal survey (Mathews 1982 #49)

SOFIA (Schulte 1997 #78, Zhai 1999 #101)

soils (Ohmann 1996 #59, Powell 1990 #69, Smith 2000 #86,

Woodcock 1993 #99)

soils (STATSGO) (Okoye 1997 #60, Watts 2001 #94)

spatial constraints (Borges 1994 #11)

SRSFIA (Brooks 1984 #12, Gunter 1994 #34, Pacheco

Lopez 1996 #63)

timber (Williams 1990 #98)

timber and recreation modeling (Erkkila 1991 #27)

timber industry survey (McGuire 2000 #50)

timber production modeling (Abt 1984 #1, Bechtold 1983

#5, Binkley 1979 #8, Carter 1993 #15, Cherry 1998 #17,

Cohan 1982 #19, Erkkila 1980 #26, Faulkner 1994 #28,

Flick 1984 #29, Gunter 1994 #34, Husain 1997 #38, Jakes

1977 #39, Kapple 1995 #41, Knapp 1981 #42, Lee 1997

#44, Liu 1988 #46, Marcouiller 1992 #48, McWilliams

1983 #52, Michael 1999 #53, Mills 1987 #54, Morse

1999 #56, Pacheco Lopez 1996 #63, Parks 1986 #64,

Randolph 2000 #71, Straka 1981 #88, Thiede 1979 #90,

Tredinnick 1995 #91, Zhou 1998 #103)

timber production modeling (age class) (Brooks 1984 #12)

timber production updating (Birdsey 1989 #9, Franco-Lopez

1999 #30)

timber productivity (Piazza 2000 #67, Shulte 1997 #78,

Woodcock 1993 #99)

timber quality (McGuire 2000 #50)

timber supply (Jorgensen 1997 #40)

tree crown health (Eckhoff 2000 #24, Morse 1999 #56,

Randolph 2000 #71)

tree growth modeling (Bolton 1984 #10, Caprata 1982 #14,

Kolbe 1998 #43, Lin 1995 #45, Murphy 1981 #57, Rubin

1999 #75, Schulte 1997 #78, Shifley 1990 #82)

tree measurement modeling (Compte 1994 #20, Hansen

1990 #35)

tree species (Friedman 2001 #33, Powell 1990 #69, Rosson

1999 #74, Rubin 1999 #75, Sullivan 2001 #89, Zhang

1998 #102)

tree species group (Lin 1995 #45, Lu 1992 #47, Piazza 2000

#67, Schulte 1997 #78)
48

tree species susceptibility (DeCoster 1996 #22)

TX (Bell 1993 #6, Cooke 1997 #21, Riley 2000 #73,

Williams 1990 #98)

United States (Abt 1984 #1, Sousa 1994 #87)

VA (Clements 1987 #18, Liu 1988 #46, Straka 1981 #88,

Wayman 2000 #95)

VT (Okoye 1997 #60)

WA (Flick 1984 #29)

water (Sheffield 1978 #81, Wu 1994 #100)

weather damage (DeCoster 1996 #22)

WI (Hansen 1990 #35, Kolbe 1998 #43, Lin 1995 #45, Lu

1992 #47, Piazza 2000 #67, Plantinga 1988 #68, Scarpa

1999 #76, Thiede 1979 #90, Weiler 1994 #96)

wildlife (Barnes 1975 #4, Brooks 1984 #13, Mathews 1982

#49, Michael 1999 #53, O’Brien 1987 #58, Sheffield

1978 #81, Sullivan 2001 #89)

willingness-to-pay (Scarpa 1999 #76)

Discussion and Conclusions

Titles and keywords indicate topics that graduate students,

their advisors, and institutions deemed important enough for

2 to 5 years of scholarly research. Research subjects from

the citations listed are concentrated in three disciplines:

economics, Geographic Information System, and timber

production. Economics and timber production alone

accounted for over 40 percent of the citations.

The organizing structure of citations in this report can be

used to provide effective input to new strategies and

approaches to current issues regarding forest resource

inventories, as shown in the following examples:

• Multiple citations listed for each keyword suggest issues

and approaches of wide interest; e.g., timber production

modeling.

• Keywords for similar subjects but with slight variation

suggest research likely to benefit from a synthesis; e.g.,

harvest probability by plot and by county.

• Keywords with disparate terms suggest novel

interdisciplinary approaches; e.g., amenity valuation and

timber production modeling.

• Keywords with few or no citations suggest regions or

topics that have not been well studied. These areas

present opportunities for future research in association

with FIA data; e.g., agricultural land, boreal forests,

tropical inventories, and nontimber forest products.

One-third of the graduate degrees represented in the

citations were granted by research institutions in States with

regional FIA survey unit offices: Minnesota (University of

Minnesota, 15; St. Cloud State University, 1); North

Carolina (North Carolina State University, 6; Duke

University, 2; University of North Carolina, 1); Mississippi

(Mississippi State University, 6); Oregon (Oregon State

University, 5); Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania State University,

2); and Utah (Utah State University, 2).

Predominant States for graduate study, with their associated

citations, included: Minnesota (14), Wisconsin (9),

Michigan (8), North Carolina (7), Indiana (5), and New

Hampshire (5). Alabama, Illinois, Mississippi, New York,

Oregon, and Texas had four reports each. There were 3 or

fewer study regions reported for the other 38 States and

none in U.S. territories.

Since I used methods to assess inclusion based on available

information, particularly for M.S. abstracts, the

predominance of some subjects, research institutions, and

study regions may be a result of the influence of

contributors and cooperating reviewers, or may, to some

extent, reflect the availability of electronic access to

abstracts, indexes, and online university catalogs. As a

result, the distribution of subjects, research institutions, and

study regions may have been inadvertently limited.

Nevertheless, the somewhat limited mix of subjects for

graduate reports are of concern for the following reasons:

• Few citations focus on topics associated with range,

recreation, water, wildlife, and integrated approaches.

• Underrepresented subjects include soils, water, shrub and

herbaceous vegetation, and other nontree attributes.

• The regions studied up to now may be omitting important

economic, physical, and social environments or may not

be ecologically representative of the rest of the United

States.

• Underrepresented ecological conditions occur in States

dominated by rangeland such as Nevada, areas

undergoing rapid urbanization such as Florida, or regions

heavily influenced by cropland or livestock production

such as the Upper Midwest.

The FIA administrators may wish to promote graduate

research among cooperating universities in underrepresented

subjects and ecological conditions. At the very least, this
49

review suggests the need for better documentation to

support FIA data-associated research in subjects and

ecosystems strategic to FIA’s mandate to conduct

comprehensive assessments.

Acknowledgments

I am especially grateful to FIA employees, graduate student

advisors at forestry schools, and others who assisted in

confirming FIA data uses or providing paper copies of thesis

abstracts. Reviewers of an earlier draft included Mark

Hansen, North Central Research Station (NCFIA); John

Moser, Purdue University and Renee O’Brien, Rocky

Mountain Research Station (RMFIA); John Mills and Susan

Willits, Pacific Northwest Research Station (PNWFIA);

Charles Scott, Northeastern Research Station (NEFIA); and

Bill Van Hees, PNWFIA—Alaska.

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inventory projection and policy analysis. Res. Pap. SE–243. Asheville,

NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southeastern Forest

Experiment Station. 42 p.

Bechtold, William A.; Sheffield, Raymond M. 1991. Hardwood timber

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Belcher, D.W.; Holdaway, M.R.; Brand, G.J. 1982. A description of

STEMS—the Stand and Tree Evaluation and Modeling System. Gen.

Tech. Rep. NC–79. St. Paul, MN: U.S. Department of Agriculture,

Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station. 18 p.

Binkley, Clark Shepard. 1981. Timber supply from private nonindustrial

forests: a microeconomic analysis of landowner behavior. Bull. 92. New

Haven, CT: Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental

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Bolton, Roger K.; Meldahl, Ralph S. 1989. Predicting growth for mixed

pine-hardwood stands—approaches, problems, and future. In: Miller,

James H., ed. Proceedings of the fifth biennial southern silvicultural

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Fox, M. Anne; DeWolfe, Anita M. 1994. Forestry theses accepted by

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Bibliogr. Ser. 22. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University. 356 p.

Kolbe, A.; Buongiorno, J.; Vasievich, M. 1999. Geographic extension of

an uneven-aged, multi-species matrix growth model for northern

hardwood forests. Ecological Modeling. 121: 235–253.

Lin, C.R.; Buongiorno, J. 1998. Tree diversity, landscape diversity, and

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Lu, H.C.; Buongiorno, J. 1993. Long- and short-term effects of alternative

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Mills, John R. 1989. TRIM timber projections: an evaluation based on

forest inventory measurements. Res. Pap. PNW–RP–408. Portland, OR:

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Othic, Scot T.; Kurtz, William B.; Baumgartner, D.C. 1982. Conversion

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projections. Res. Pap. NC–287. St. Paul, MN: U.S. Department of

Agriculture, Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station.

17 p.

Reed, David; Pregitzer, K.; Pugh, S.; Miles, P. 2001. FIAMODEL: a new

link for geographic analyses of inventory data. Journal of Forestry.

99(6): 21–24.

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silviculture on stand structure, species composition, and economic

returns of loblolly-shortleaf pine stands. Forest Ecology and

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models to optimize uneven-aged loblolly pine management. In:

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method for estimating operability and location of the timber resource.

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availability in north central Pennsylvania: the next three decades.

Northern Journal of Applied Forestry. 4(3): 119–124.

Thiede, J.; Buongiorno, J. 1982. Long-term forecasting of timber harvest,

growth and inventory in Wisconsin. Res. Bull. R3150. Madison, WI:

University of Wisconsin, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. 45 p.

Tredinnick, J.; Carter, D.R. 1995. Using TAMM to project State level

resource and market conditions. In: Caulfield, Jon P.; Bullard, Steven H.,

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University, Department of Forestry: 388–396.
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Rudis, Victor A. 2003. Fresh ideas, perspectives, and protocols associated with Forest

Inventory and Analysis surveys: graduate reports, 1974 to July 2001. Gen. Tech. Rep.

SRS–61. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern

Research Station. 49 p.

Graduate M.S. theses and Ph.D. dissertations were searched to provide a body of

information associated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest

Inventory and Analysis (FIA) database. Authors’ abstracts were included if available in

electronic form and published since 1974. Novel technical and nontraditional FIA data uses,

as well as the geographic region of the reported studies, were highlighted in keywords and

annotations. The search yielded the 103 citations included in this report. Dominating efforts

were in economics, Geographic Information Systems, timber production, and selected

States, with a broadening array of subjects in more recent years. Research institutions in

States with regional FIA survey unit offices granted one-third of the graduate degrees.

Providing an overview of the uses of FIA data in student research, the results show that a

body of knowledge based on the data is evolving, whereas the distribution of subjects and

study regions has been somewhat limited.

Keywords: Bibliography, dissertation, historical synthesis, interdisciplinary, MRI (multipurpose resource inventory), thesis.
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