NIMAC

Who We Are

The National Inventory and Monitoring Applications Center (NIMAC) is a program with national scope, based at the headquarters office of the US Forest Service’s Northern Research Station in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. We originated from within the Northern Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA) in 2006, and are comprised of staff with expertise in biometry, statistics, geospatial technology, computer programming, databases, forestry field methods, and forestry data analysis – covering much of the range of FIA itself.

NIMAC's Mission

To develop leading edge forest ecosystem monitoring methods and tools to help FIA and other organizations monitor forests, resulting in compatible results across the landscape.  Methods and software tools are designed for use by land managers and across ownerships at landscape to national scales, but will also provide added flexibility to FIA. 

Background

With the increasing pressures to manage public and private land sustainably, the need for efficient monitoring methods has grown dramatically. Forest Certification, the Montreal Criteria and Indicators, carbon credits and National Forest System (NFS) planning rules are significant drivers in this movement. FIA is regularly asked to support monitoring efforts at a more local scale by clients such as state forests, military installations, non-governmental organizations, National Parks, and even other countries. NFS monitoring coordinators and planners have expressed strong interest in developing question-driven planning tools and standard protocols to help ensure that data on National Forests are collected in a scientifically credible manner. Finally, FIA itself often requires additional techniques and monitoring expertise to address its needs. NIMAC fills these roles by conducting techniques research, developing tools, and adapting existing or developing new monitoring methods to meet clients’ needs.  By using FIA-based methods for monitoring, results for different ownerships can be scaled up to the regional and national levels.  NIMAC helps forest managers be better stewards of the land by helping them monitor our Nation’s forests in a cohesive, scientifically-sound way.

More information on NIMAC. (pdf - You may obtain a free PDF reader from Adobe.)