Chapter 9. — Scientific Information and Data Needs 



Four major areas for which improvements in scien- 

 tific information and data were needed to guide 

 forest and range land policies and programs were 

 identified in the 1975 Assessment of Renewable 

 Resources.' These are: 



• inventories of forest, range, and inland 

 water resources. 



• estimates of physical responses of forest, 

 range, and inland waters to changes in 

 management practices. 



• surveys of the use of forest and range 

 products. 



• research on the techniques of collecting 

 data and information needed for manage- 

 ment purposes. 



Progress Since 1975 



Although the time since the 1975 Assessment has 

 been too short for results of changes in research 

 programs to be available, progress was made in at 

 least three of the major areas identified above. 

 Furthermore, the groundwork for future improve- 

 ment has been established. Much remains to be done, 

 however, to respond fully to the research needs 

 identified in the 1975 Assessment for these and 

 other areas. 



Moreover, needs exist for research on associated 

 problems involved in the administration, manage- 

 ment, and use of forest and range lands. These 

 are described in detail in a recent study of national 

 research needs prepared by a Task Force of the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National 

 Association of State Universities and Land Grant 

 Colleges. 2 



Inventories of Forest and Range Resources 



Research on developing, testing, and evaluating 

 new inventory techniques for obtaining needed infor- 

 mation on renewable natural resources has been 

 underway. One example is the recently completed 

 South Carolina Multiresource Inventory Pilot Study 

 conducted by the Renewable Resources Evaluation 

 Unit of the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station. ^ 

 This pilot study expands the timber inventory for 

 South Carolina, which is conducted at regular inter- 

 vals by the Forest Service, to include other renew- 



' Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, The Nation's 

 renewable resources — an assessment, 1975. For. Resource Rep. 

 21, U.S. Gov. Print. Off., Washington, D.C., 243 p., 1977. 



2 U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Association 

 of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. National program 

 of research for forests and associated rangelands. U.S. Department 

 of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington, D.C., 40 p., 1978. 



^McClure, Joe P., N. D. Cost, and H. A. Knight. Multiresource 

 inventories, a new concept for Forest Survey. Forest Service. 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture. Research Paper SE. (In process). 



able forest resources. The basic approach was to 

 expand the existing timber inventory into a multi- 

 resource inventory by making maximum use of well- 

 established inventory methods. 



Additional data obtained at each sample location 

 included special information needed for evaluating 

 wildlife habitat, recreation use, range suitability, water 

 quality, erosion hazards related to forestry practices, 

 and the use-interactions associated with various forest 

 conditions in South Carolina. The vegetative makeup 

 of different forest conditions reflects the basic eco- 

 logical relationships vital to multiresource evalua- 

 tions. Consequently, a major goal of the pilot study 

 was to quantify and describe all the vegetation at 

 each sample location in relation to the observed uses 

 of the forest land. Many of the data elements already 

 being collected in the regular timber inventory also 

 proved useful in assessing nontimber resources. 



Analysis of the multiresource inventory data col- 

 lection has not yet been completed. However, pre- 

 liminary analyses show that the South Carolina pilot 

 study met its planned objectives. It appears that, 

 for the first time in any State, managers and 

 policymakers have multiresource inventory data on 

 a common statewide basis. 



Another example of a new method for inventory- 

 ing wildland resources is known as ECOSYM'*. This 

 is a comprehensive system for land classification 

 and a framework for building a multiresource infor- 

 mation system. It provides a framework of eco- 

 system components that are hierarchically structured 

 and objectively defined. It includes systems for clas- 

 sifying bedrock geology, regolith topography, cli- 

 mate, soil, current vegetation, and potential vege- 

 tation. The ecosystem components are defined inde- 

 pendently of their relation to adjacent components. 

 Any component or combination of components can 

 be used to classify areas for management purposes. 

 Similarly, knowledge of the components and their 

 interrelationships on any given area can be used, 

 perhaps in combination with the other available 

 information, to define appropriate rules for man- 

 agement of the land and vegetative resource. These 

 rules, in turn, can be applied to the information on 

 components, which are stored in computers, to pro- 

 vide land managers with processed information in 

 either mapped or tabular form. 



ECOSYM has been tested sufficiently to warrant 

 considering it for adoption as a common concep- 

 tual approach to developing natural resource infor- 

 mation systems. The component classifications have 



■i Henderson, J. A. and L. S. Davis. ECOSYM: a classification 

 and information system for wildland resource management. In 

 Integrated inventories of renewable natural resources: Proc. of 

 workshop. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky 

 Mountain For. and Range Exp. Sta., p. 384-389. 1978. 



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