SGSF leads call to modernize national forest inventory in support of Southern Forests 

The Southern Group of State Foresters continues to lead the charge for sustained investment in, and modernization of, the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program.

WASHINGTON, D.C.  | Recently, SGSF Executive Director Tim Foley joined more than a dozen co-authors in publishing “Modernizing America’s National Forest Inventory through a Third Blue Ribbon Panel” in the Journal of Forestry. The article makes the case that FIA, which has guided national forest policy and investment since 1928, is being pulled in directions it is not currently resourced to handle. FIA data provides a full picture of the ecological, economic and societal value of the nation’s forests. But demand is growing for FIA data across a widening range of uses, from deciding where to site new forest product facilities and how much timber supply is available, to tracking forest health concerns, wildfire risk factors, carbon and ecosystem services, and land use changes.

To address these challenges, the article advocates for the convening of a third FIA Blue Ribbon Panel, following the model of two earlier panels in the 1990s that drove major advances in the program. A new panel would give state forestry experts and other stakeholders a crucial voice in assessing the program’s needs and setting the course for the next decade. It would also help address gaps in technology, funding and workforce capacity that have only widened in recent years.

“We appreciate the work of Chairman Boozman and the Senate Agriculture Committee for incorporating FIA provisions, including the call for a Blue Ribbon Panel, in their recently released Farm Bill discussion draft,” said Foley. “If enacted, the findings from a Blue Ribbon Panel would give Congress and decision makers the information necessary to confidently invest in a program that serves the South’s forests, landowners, communities and the forest products industry.”

The article also warns that other nations are moving fast. The European Union is standing up satellite-based forest monitoring tied to new deforestation regulations. China has launched dedicated satellites to track forest carbon at a national scale. Without a modernized FIA, the U.S. risks falling behind in the data infrastructure that underpins its forest economy.

FIA has served as the nation’s primary forest inventory system since 1928. In the South, where FIA data is crucial to forest products market recruitment and retention, state forestry agencies serve as the program’s backbone, collecting data from ground plots across 12 states.

Learn more about the southern FIA program here.

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