Forest Inventory and Analysis Database: U.S. Forest Statistics Since 1968

The Forest Inventory and Analysis database (FIADB) provides statistics on forest area, tree numbers, biomass, volume, growth, mortality, and harvest across the United States. It is produced by the USDA Forest Service, with the earliest data dating back to 1968 and a transition to annual state-level inventories mandated in 1999. Data can be categorized by county, forest type, ownership, stand size, tree species, and diameter.

Use Cases

• Estimate forest carbon sequestration potential based on biomass and volume data.
• Analyze timber resource trends over time based on growth, mortality, and harvest statistics.
• Model forest composition and structure based on data categorized by species, diameter, and forest type.
• Assess land ownership patterns and their impact on forest area and stand size.

Strengths

• Includes data from as early as 1968, providing a long-term perspective.
• Uses a common plot design and data collection procedures nationwide for consistency.
• Statistics can be categorized by multiple dimensions including county, ownership, species, and diameter.

Limitations

• Data collection frequency for individual states varied before the annual inventory system.
• Pre-annual inventory data may have null attributes or different collection/computation methods.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

USDA Forest Service

Collection Method

Field inventory plots using a common nationwide design.

Time Range

Earliest data from 1968, with ongoing annual inventories since 1999.

Geography

Forest land across the United States.