1. Bureau of Indian Affairs Data Availability and Translation
Dave Wilson
Sr. Inventory Forester
USDOI – Bureau of Indian Affairs
Branch of Forest Resources Planning
Lakewood, CO
Acknowledgements
Karen DeBord, BIA
Don Vandendriesche, USFS-FMSC
Presented at the Third Forest Vegetation Simulator Conference. Fort Colins, CO. 2007

2. Indian Forestry Twelve regions nationally
Basically have three versions of the data conversion utility for plot data
Eastern US
Western US (except the Northwest)
Northwest Region
Conversion utilities for stand level inventories

3. Forest Inventories in Indian Country
320 forested reservations
Largest 5.3 million acres
Smallest is 3 acres
81 reservations with permanent plot inventories (CFI)
Other reservations with significant forest acres have temporary plot inventories
Minor forested reservations have temporary plot inventories or stand level inventories
Most reservations have stand level inventory

4. Role of the Branch of Forest Resources Planning
Assist in the measurement of the inventory
When requested, process the field data
Regression analysis
Volume calculations
Create FVS-ready data files
Deploy analysis package to reservation
Train field staff on applications
The objective is to put the tools into the hands of the field foresters

5. Use of FVS in Inventory Analysis
Used in conjunction with standard BIA analysis suite
Inventory is first benchmarked using the BIA programs
Determines the current condition of forest
Measured trends on forest
Monitor of management practices
Used in modeling management alternatives, calculation of allowable cut

6. Data Conversion Utility
Creates Tree Files for FVS
ASCII Text file format
Tree files generated for all measurement intervals
Three versions of tree files created
Gross volumes – allows for the problem fields to be used for other uses such as DMR
Net volumes – uses two problem fields for cubic and board defect
“Special” dataset – used to combine defect (cubic) and tree problem

7. Data Conversion (con’t)
SLF files are generated using plot level data from the inventory
Can be programmed to use most current data or the data collected at time of measurement
Grouping fields are programmed for each reservation

8. Text Files vs. Database
Programming the generation of text files allows for more control over the coding of data fields
Conversion of CFI codes to FVS
Special codes used in problem fields

9. Inventory Package Folder Structure

11. Linking it all together

12. Presuppose Special sorting is done through Presuppose
Allows for the generation of FVS run based on any plot level information
Develops a sort file that can be used in the BIA CFI applications along with the FVS analysis

13. Developing Data Sort

14. Reviewing and Saving Results

15. Running through FVS

16. Results
CFI
SVS
FVS