Title: Focus on...The right tools: Managing for fire using FIA inventory data.

Author: USDA Forest Service

Year: 2003

Publication: Collection of articles from Journal of Forestry. 101(2):6 p.

Abstract: The relative severity of recent fire seasons has led to numerous debates about the health, associated fire hazards, and effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments in forests across the United States. Scientific analyses of forest inventories offer policy makers and other interested parties objective information with which to make crucial forest management decisions.

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the USDA Forest Service has been monitoring the nation`s forest resources for more than 75 years. The program`s systematic, georeferenced, and multiphase inventory represents the most comprehensive, consistent, and current assessment of the US forests available. The FIA inventory is well-suited to provide answers to the multitude of fire and forest management questions. The four brief articles that follow are just a few examples of how the program`s inventory and analysis can be used to inform current forest fire debate.