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Biometrics Working Group Meeting Material

The BWG is administered by NCASI.  The BWG organizes meetings where knowledgeable forest biometricians from academia, government forestry agencies and industry discuss technical issues.  Meeting topics are often related to the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program.  However, technical issues on carbon monitoring or sustainable forestry are also of interest. 


2012 National FIA-User-Group Meeting: March 7th-8th Baltimore, Maryland

Meeting Overview

  1. Purpose: To learn about recent progress in the FIA program and to provide an opportunity for FIA staff to hear from users.
  2. Agenda: See the meeting agenda here.
  3. Register here for the 2012 FIA National User Group Meeting.

2011 National FIA-User-Group Meeting In Sacramento, California

Meeting Overview

  1. Purpose: To learn about recent progress in the FIA program and to provide an opportunity for FIA staff to hear from users. A field trip was provided to allow users to learn about FIA field plot measurement techniques.
  2. Agenda: See the meeting agenda here.
  3. Attendees: The list of attendees is here
  4. The Field Trip: The group was very impressed by the professional manner in which FIA staff organized and conducted the field trip. It gave the participants new appreciation for the logistical and time requirements of this critical FIA activity. Serious consideration will be given to having a similar activity at the next meeting. Data from the FIA national grid of forested plots are the foundation of the FIA program.
  5. Presentations: You can view available presentations and author provided abstracts given in alphabetical order by authors last name.
  6. Follow-up items suggested by the group:
    • FIA should give a high priority to putting the National TPO data into a publicly available database that is analogous to the FIADB. A state from each region should be selected for a pilot test so this process can begin as soon as possible.
    • A biomass data collection effort should be planned and implemented, if adequate funding can be found. The purpose would be to develop improved regional and national biomass estimation methods.
    • FIA should create a series of options that can be used to respond efficiently to budget fluctuations. The purpose is to minimize the impact of budget rescissions and to ensure that budget increases will have maximum benefit to FIA users. Users suggested that the P3 data be reconsidered, that the P2 intensity not be reduced, and to not change the design.
  7. Meeting Summary: A pdf summary of the 2011 meeting is available for download.

2010 joint FIA-User-Group Meeting & Bioenergy/Biomass Workshop in Houston, Texas

  1. Purpose: The User Group meeting purpose was to learn about recent FIA progress and to provide input for improvements and new directions for FIA. The Biomass Workshop purpose was to discuss issues related to emerging concerns about uses of woody biomass for bioenergy and associated forest carbon requirements.
  2. Agenda: See the meeting agenda here.
  3. Attendees: The list of attendees is here
  4. Presentations: There were 30+ presentations given at these meetings. You can view available presentations and author provided abstracts given in alphabetical order by authors last name.
  5. Follow-up items suggested by the group:
    • FIA should attempt to put the National TPO dataset on the FIA Datamart site within 1 year (by March 2011)
    • FIA should conduct a follow-up study to demonstrate the accuracy and precision of the new aboveground live-tree biomass estimates
    • FIA should continue to conduct outreach toward new users
    • FIA should correct data that were found to have been erroneously recorded in a subsequent remeasurement, e.g. a slash pine was found to be a loblolly pine during remeasurement.
  6. Meeting Summary: A pdf summary of the 2010 meeting is available for download. This includes a brief FIA business report and the results of a survey done at the user group meeting that asked users to assess FIA's performance in a number of areas.

Archived Information about the Joint FIA User Group and Biometrics Working Group Meeting in New Orleans (2009) is found here. Information from earlier BWG meetings that discussed FIA issues is in the same archive.