An Ecological Assessment of the Louisiana Tensas River Basin Chapter 3 
Detailed Forest Analysis of the Tensas River 
Basin , 1970s to 1990s. 
The landscape analysis began with taking the 1972 
classified data and running computer programs which 
calculate the various landscape statistics. The landscape 
statistics for the 1972 and 1991/92 data are given in 
Tables 3.1 and 3.2 (all tables are found at the end of 
Chapter 3). Figures 3.10 and 3.11 show the classified 
images of the Tensas River Basin for 1972 and 1991/92 
respectively. The Tensas River Basin was classified into 
three categories: forest, human use (urban and agricul¬ 
ture), and water. The water statistics are not presented 
in the tables. 
In 1972 the data show the amount of forest area in the 
Tensas River Basin as 126,298 hectares and the human 
use as 244,522 hectares. These represent 33.6% and 
65.1 % of the total Tensas River Basin area. In 1991/92 the 
amount of forest area is 80,807 hectares and human use 
is 290,336 hectares. These represent 21.5% and 77.3% of 
the total Tensas River Basin. The net forest loss for this 
period is 45,491 hectares (112,463 acres) or 12.3% of the 
land area. These data indicate a substantial decrease in 
forest and an increase in human use over the years. The 
totals and percents are given for each subwatershed 
(Tables 3.1 and 3.2). The landscape analysis for percent 
forest change which includes the entire Tensas River 
Basin is shown in Table 3.3. The classified data which 
show the forest vegetation change is given in Figure 3.12. 
These data were also analyzed by subwatershed and 
presented in Table 3.3. 
Forest patch statistics are also given in Tables 3.1 and 
3.2. A high same-type forest edge percentage indicates 
low forest fragmentation. In 1991/92, subwatershed 
number 6 has a same-type edge percentage of 94.9. 
This is a very high value showing that the forest in 
subwatershed number 6 is highly connected. The Tensas 
River National Wildlife Refuge is located in subwatershed 
number 6 which accounts for the high value as connected 
forest patches are needed for wildlife management. The 
largest forest patch size and the average patch size are 
also given in these tables. 
z 
Land Cover 
Forest 
Human Use 
HBj Water 
Figure 3.10 
1970s Classified Image, Land Cover. 
