GLENVILLE, W.Va. (WBOY) – Forester Karen Kubly of the U.S. Forest Service recently helped a group of Glenville State University (GSU) students learn about sampling and plot design used by the Northern Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program.
According to a GSU release, the students, who are a part of a GSU Forest Measurements class, met on GSU-owned forestland.
With accompaniment by Department of Land Resources Academic Laboratory Instructional Assistant Tom Snyder, Forester Kubly helped the group understand “the process in locating the inventory plot, contacting landowner to request access to the property, collecting forest data, and processing data for analysis,” the release said.
Measurements collected include general land use, changes in land use and forest stand characteristics, tree species, diameter, height, amount of rotten or missing wood and tree quality, counts of tree regeneration, estimates of growth, mortality tree crown conditions, soil chemical analysis, invasive plants inventory, vegetation diversity and structure, and down woody material.
The release said that according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the data from the FIA program provides valuable information to resource managers, policymakers, investors, and the public. This includes wildlife habitat suitability, carbon sequestration, old-growth forest, timber availability, forest fragmentation, fire hazard and forest insect/disease impact.
