Continuous Forest Inventory for the Northwest Region Bureau of Indian Affairs

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Continuous Forest Inventory for the Northwest
Region Bureau of Indian Affairs

• Arnie Browning, Forester
• NWRO BIA Portland, OR.
• [phone]

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National Overview

• 565 Federally Recognized Tribes
• Recognized Tribes are in all but 17 states
• 20 percent of American Indians reside on 314
  reservations
• 18 million acres of forest land on 317
  reservations (8 MM acres timberland, 10 MM acres
  woodland)
• 732 MMBF Annual Allowable Cut

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Historical Overview

• 1776-1871 The Formative Years
• 1830 Indian Removal Act
• 1832 Chief Justice John Marshalls Cases
• 1871-1928 Allotment Assimilation
• 1887 General Allotment Act (Dawes Act)
• 1909 PL 35 Stat. 781 creates Forestry Division
• within Office of Indian Affairs
• 1910 PL 33 Stat. 855 established timber sales on
  Indian land
• 1828-1953 Indian Reorganization
• 1934 Indian Reorganization Act (Wheeler-Howard
  Act)
• prohibited future allotment of land
• 1953-1968 Termination Era
• 1968-1982 Indian Self-Determination
• 1982- present Self-Governance
• - 1990 National Indian Forest Resources
  Management Act
• Tribal Forestry Programs, Independent Assessment
  (IFMAT)

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Indian Forestry ProgramNationwideFacts and
Figures

• Currently
• 43 billion bd. Ft. of standing forest inventory
  on commercial forests
• 1.5 sustainable annual harvest
• 18 million acres of Trust forest
• 6 million acres of commercial timberland
• FY 2003
• 634 million board feet harvested
• 62 million to the Tribal owners
• 42 thousand acres thinned (PCT)
• 14 thousand acres reforested
• 157 thousand acres of fuels treated
• gt100 thousand acres of forest treated
  silviculturally in the commercial harvest
• 5-Year Annual Average (1999-2003)
• 622 million board feet harvested
• 93 million to the Tribal owners

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INDIAN FOREST LANDS NATIONAL SUMMARY TIMBER
AVAILABILITY HARVEST (1993-2003)(Millions of
Board Feet)
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Indian Self-DeterminationTribal Participation in
Forest Management(91 Tribes Performing all or
some of the Program)

• Portions of forestry program
• 6 Self-Governance Compacts
• 28 Self-Determination Contracts

• Entire forestry program
• 31 Self-Governance Compacts
• 26 Self-Determination Contracts

ACRES (thousands)
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Forest Management Inventories
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FIVE-YEAR INDIAN HARVEST SUMMARYREVENUE ( ) BY
BIA REGION(519 million to Tribal owners)(1998
2002)
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5
9
77
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BIA Northwest Region
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BIA Northwest Region

• 2,664,000 acres timberland mostly on Category 1
  reservations
• (Category 1 defined as over 1MMBF AAC)
• 385 MMBF Annual Allowable Cut
• All Category 1 reservations have Continuous
  Forest Inventory (CFI) plots except Grand Ronde.
  Many have Stand Inventory also.

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History of CFI

• Late 1940s Calvin B. Stott, USFS introduced CFI
  to Lake States
• The original purpose of the CFI was to collect
  stocking, growth, removal, and mortality
  information indispensable to the establishment of
  broad management policies on large forest areas.
  (Stott, 1960)

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Steps in the CFI Process

• Pre-Inventory
• Review previous CFI Field Manual
• Revise Manual for the re-measurement
• Write data entry and edit program
• Data collection and error checking
• Regression analysis, more data cleaning
• Write CFI program (VB 6 and Fortran 90)
• Write User Manual and assist with program
  installation and operation
• Assist with inventory analysis, growth and yield
  modeling, harvest scheduling, AAC.

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Changes in Sample Design

• 1950 -1980
• Cluster of 2 or 3 one-fifth or one-quarter acre
  subplots, usually on one-mile grid
• 1/20th acre minor plot for height and form class
• 1/100th acre minor plot for seedlings/saplings
• Plot data timber type, habitat type, slope,
  aspect, etc
• Tree data spc, dbh, crown ratio, height, tree
  history, problem/severity, age or age class, etc
• Re-measure every 10 years
• 1980 present
• re-measure only one plot per cluster (each
  subplot was always treated as an independent
  sample point)
• Double the grid, usually ½ mile grid (more
  even-aged treatments, more stratification of the
  data)
• Add snag data, fuel transect data, 3 tree
  problem/severity codes per tree (usually FVS
  codes), new height sample

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Changes in Height Sample

• Before 1990
• Measure total height on all trees 5 inches dbh
  and larger on 1/20th or 1/16th acre minor plot
• After 1990
• On 1/5 acre plot, measure total height on the
  first tree of each species in each 5 inch dbh
  class, and all trees 20 in. dbh and larger.

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Changes in Height Model

• 1950 1987
• Ht b0 b1 DBH b2 (DBH)2
• (2nd or 3rd degree polynomial)
• risky outside range of data, must cap
• 1988 2002
• Ht 4.5 exp (b0 b1 / (DBH1))
• FVS (Wycoff et.al,1982)
• Usually stratify height sample by productivity
  class
• 2002 present
• Ht 4.5 b0 (exp (-b1 (DBH)b2 ))
• FPS (Arney, 1985)

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Comparison of Ht Models FVS

• Slightly over estimates at 5 10 inches dbh
• Slight under estimates at large diameters
• Almost always a reasonable model

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FVS Height Model - continued

• Height to Diameter correlation is reasonable even
  for small samples

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FPS Height Model

• Usually slightly improved fit through the entire
  range of DBH (when compared with FVS height
  model)
• Still getting experience with this model (only
  Warm Springs and Quinault)

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Plot the data and the model

• Our experience with FPS height model is limited
  one unreasonable model so far.
• Thanks to error-trapping in Flewelling taper
  code, we discovered this problem

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Western white pine on Quinault

• When the cruisers showed us how Western white
  pine grows on the reservation, we reluctantly
  agreed to a small sample
• DBH is at 34 feet above ground level of this
  pine growing out of an old cedar snag

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CFI Program Options for Volume and Taper

• Behres Hyperbola Explained in 1983 Forest Mgt
  Inven. Handbook, App 1D
• Form Class DIB17/DBH
• Used in CFIs from 1950s to present
• Most DIB at 17 feet measured in 1970s to 1980s on
  CFI minor plots

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Form Class

• The theory of form class volume tables is that
  for a given height, trees vary in taper in the
  first log, but above the first log, taper is
  quite similar for trees of the same size and
  merchantable height, regardless of species.
  (Bell, 1989).
• Most of the taper is in the first log.

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Behres Hyperbola

• BHT THT - 17.3
• RHT THT - upper stem ht
• L RHT / BHT
• D L / (0.49 L 0.51)
• DIB DIB17 D

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BIA Volume Method

• Use Behres Hyperbola to calculate DIB at top of
  each log
• If dib gt 8.0 then
• bd(-.26875-.12375dib .049375dib2) log
  length
• If dib lt 8.0 then
• bd(-083714 .018569dib .059009dib2-.003894d
  ib3) log length

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BIA Volume (continued)

• These regression formulas were developed by
  regressing the Factors published on page 38 of
  the Official Rules for the Log Scaling and
  Grading Bureaus,
• January 1, 1982

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West-side Taper Coop

• Completed May 2, 1994
• For Douglas-Fir, Western Hemlock, and Western
  Redcedar
• Quinault Tribe, Washington DNR, Industrial Forest
  Owners, contributed felled tree data
• Data modeled by James Flewelling, PhD.

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INGY Taper Coop

• Distributed to INGY Members Sep. 1996
• Sectioned tree data collected for
  AF,DF,ES,GF,LP,MH,PP,RC,SF,WF,WH, WL,WP
• INGY participants included Flathead, Nez Perce,
  Spokane, and WS Tribes, Boise Cascade, Champion,
  Potlatch, DNR, USFS, BC Min of Forests
• Modeled by James Flewelling, PhD.

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Uses of CFI data and programs

• Document changes and trends in the forest
  stocking, growth, harvest, mortality
• Data used to calibrate growth and yield models
  (both FVS and FPS have used CFI data from
  reservation forests)
• Harvest Scheduling, Annual Allowable Cut
• Assess Forest Management Plans achievement of
  goals

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East-side CFI Statistics
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Boardfoot Stocking Trends
Colville, Spokane, Warm Springs, and Yakama
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Harvest vs. Net Growth
Colville, Warm Springs, Yakama
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MortalityCoeur dAlene, Colville, Warm Springs,
Yakama
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Warm Springs Ponderosa Pine Stocking Trend
1972-1997
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Warm Springs stocking trend, all species
combined, 1972 1997
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Warm Springs Harvest and Net Growth Trends 1972 -
1997
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Changes in Annual Allowable Cut