About IW-FIA
The Interior West Forest Inventory and Analysis Unit (IW-FIA), headquartered
in Ogden, Utah, has the responsibility to improve the understanding and
management of our Nation’s forests by measuring, assessing, and
reporting on the extent, condition, and health of the forest land of the
Interior West on an annual basis. Their purpose is to:
• Collect and disseminate information about the forests of the
Interior West States relating to forest distribution, condition, health
and utilization.
• Develop innovative methods for sampling and integrating inventory
data with remotely sensed information, thereby improving the quality
and efficiency of inventory analysis and reporting products.
• Maintain a database of up-to-date statistics in order to provide
resource information to the Forest Service, its cooperators, other public
agencies, and the public at large.
• Develop methods and procedures to test and evaluate indicators
for assessing rangeland status and health.
Some activities used to fulfill this purpose include:
• Conduct inventories on all forest lands in the Interior West
States (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, UT, and WY).
• Provide technical coordination for monitoring and analyses at
local, State, and regional levels. This includes measuring a variety
of ecological parameters including forest biomass; tree
growth, removals, and mortality; wildlife habitat; soil conditions;
and damage due to disease and other factors.
• Address specific problems peculiar to each State of sub-region
of interest.
• Identify additional renewable forest resource-related research
areas, opportunities for improved management of resources, and potential
conflicts among resource uses.
• Conduct special data collection efforts and studies for rapid
assessments, e.g., fires.
• Conduct pilot inventories on select non-forest lands.
The IW-FIA unit operates under technical guidance from the Office of
the Deputy Chief for Research and Development, located in Washington,
DC, and under administrative guidance from the Director of the Rocky Mountain
Research Station located in Fort Collins, Colorado.
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