Cassandra L. Olson

Title: Ecologist
Unit: Forest Inventory & Analysis
Previous Unit: Forest Inventory & Analysis
Address: Northern Research Station
1992 Folwell Ave
St. Paul, MN 55108
Phone: 651-649-5128
E-mail: Contact Cassandra L. Olson

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Education

• University Of Minnesota ? Twin Cities, B.S. Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, 1998
• North Hennepin Community College. A.A. Liberal Arts, 1996

Current Research

I conduct remote sensing to determine land uses for FIA plots. A plot that is determined to be forested (1 acre or more of continuous forest land) gets sent to the field foresters for ground measurements. This information is loaded into the FIA database once all is edited and is ready for use by our scientists and/or public and private users.

I am also one of the coordinators for the Northern Research Station?s P3 (formerly Forest Health Monitoring) Vegetation Indicator. I conduct training for field crews, do data collection where needed, and Quality Assurance checks.

In addition to these main tasks, I am responsible for training crews on data collection procedures for NRS? nonnative invasive species protocol and maintaining the list of species FIA observes in the Northern Region.

Why is This Important

As part of the data collection side of the FIA unit, I take responsibility for ensuring plot information sent to our field foresters is as accurate as possible so plots can be found easily and data collected in a timely manner.

Collecting quality data in our forests, whether it be tree data, vegetation data, or invasive vegetation data is important in ensuring accurate and consistent monitoring. I believe my efforts at the front end of FIA are crucial to quality data collection.

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