Program Features
National Assessment
- Resources Planning Act (RPA)
Background: The Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources
Planning Act of 1974 RPA, P.L. 93-378, 88 Stat.
475, as amended, directed the Secretary of Agriculture
to prepare a Renewable Resources Assessment
by December 31, 1975 and update in 1979 and
each 10th year thereafter. FIA currently
provides updates of assessment data every five
years as required by the Agriculture Research,
Extension and Education Reform Act of 1998 (Farm
Bill). These assessments include "an analysis
of present and anticipated uses, demand for,
and supply of the renewable resources, with
consideration of the international resource
situation, and an emphasis of pertinent supply,
demand and price relationships trends."
RPA Maps
Data for the maps were derived from compiled FIA sample observations,
except for portions of some western States where National Forest
System (NFS) lands were inventoried independently. Data were
not available for interior Alaska, the Pacific Basin, Puerto
Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and a small number of counties
in the lower 48 states. Data were downloaded from the 2002 RPA
plot summary database in the form of a dbase file. Data are available
free at (http://www.fia.fs.fed.us). Data were joined to the National
Atlas of the United States County Boundaries, 2001 shapefile:
(http://nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html), using federal information
processing standards (FIPS) county codes.
Each map was derived from a template so that the maps have the
same look and feel and that the map components meld into a coherent,
consistent graphic design.
Coverage scales, text sizes and line widths for the FIA RPA
map template were set primarily with page size (8 1/2 by 11 inch)
map products in mind. Coverages were set to scales that would
make maximum use of the available space while still allowing
sufficient room for titles, legends and other descriptive information.
The coterminous United States are in the USA Contiguous Albers
Equal Area Conic, USGS version projection using a NAD83 datum.
Units are in meters.
The maps allow you to visualize spatially, county level forest
resource information from a bird’s eye perspective. To
reveal underlying groupings and spatial patterns in the data,
categories were first classified using natural breaks using geographic
information system (GIS) software.
A complete list of the map descriptions can be found at http://www.fia.fs.fed.us/tools-data/maps/default.asp
This is a national report on the state of US
forests and the indicators of national progress
towards the goal of sustainable forest management. FIA
is a major provider of data to this report. 2002 Preliminary
RPA data available for review Preliminary 2002 Resources Planning Act (RPA)
assessment tables are available for review in
either pdf
format or as a zipped
file. These are preliminary statistics and
may change before publication. To aid in the
review and comparison, the preliminary 2002
tables are in the same order as the appendix
tables found in 'Forest
Resources of the United States, 1997'. The
1997 report may be viewed in pdf format with
tables also provided in Excel format. At the 2002
RPA website you can also query the preliminary
resource data and timber product output (TPO)
data using the FIA's Mapmaker
Program,
and email comments and questions to us.
1997 RPA: The United States
Forest Resource Current Situation
1992
RPA
English
Measurement text and tables: Metric Measurement
Text and Tables:
Forest Cover
Map
Development:
You will need Acrobat Reader to view .pdf documents.
Click here to download a free copy of Acrobat Reader.
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