Provides the rationale and context for a national inventory of down woody material. Documents the various woody material components sampled by the DWM indicator, the sampling protocol used to measure the DWM components, and estimation procedures. Provides guidance on managing and processing DWM data and incorporating that data into pertinent inventory analyses and research projects.

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the USDA Forest Service conducts a national inventory of forests of the United States. A subset of FIA permanent inventory plots are sampled every year for indicators of forest health such as soils, understory vegetation, and down woody materials (DWM). The DWM indicator provides estimates of down and dead woody materials in forest ecosystems. Estimates of DWM are used in assessments of forest-ecosystem attributes such as fuel loadings, carbon stocks, and structural diversity. As defined by the FIA program, DWM comprises fine and coarse woody debris, slash piles, duff, litter, and shrub/herbs cover and height. Components of DWM are sampled using the line-intersect method, point sampling, and fixed-radius sampling. DWM data analyses are an integral part of national inventory reports, multi-scale forest-health reports, and wildlife-habitat, and fuel-loading assessments. The DWM inventory began in 2001 and currently is implemented in 46 states and two territories. In this report we provide the rationale and context for a national inventory of DWM, describe woody material components sampled by the DWM indicator, discuss the sampling protocol used to measure the DWM components and corresponding estimation procedures, and provide guidance on managing and processing DWM data and incorporating that information into pertinent inventory analyses and research projects.

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 183. For carbon sequestration the issues of monitoring, risk assessment, and verification of carbon content and storage efficacy are perhaps the most uncertain. Yet these issues are also the most critical challenges facing the broader context of carbon sequestration as a means for addressing climate change. In response to these challenges, Carbon Sequestration and Its Role in the Global Carbon Cycle presents current perspectives and research that combine five major areas: The global carbon cycle and verification and assessment of global carbon sources and sinks Potential capacity and temporal/spatial scales of terrestrial, oceanic, and geologic carbon storage Assessing risks and benefits associated with terrestrial, oceanic, and geologic carbon storage Predicting, monitoring, and verifying effectiveness of different forms of carbon storage Suggested new CO2 sequestration research and management paradigms for the future. The volume is based on a Chapman Conference and will appeal to the rapidly growing group of scientists and engineers examining methods for deliberate carbon sequestration through storage in plants, soils, the oceans, and geological repositories.

This annual Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Fiscal Year 2015 business report (#18) will tell you, the taxpayers, partners, and clients what the program has accomplished with the financial resources provided and what the program will accomplish in the coming year with budgeted financial resources. This relationship with taxpayers, partners, and clients is integral to FIA's continued success, because accountability is their first priority. Some key findings of this annual report are: Annualized progress, Funding, Partners' support, Grants and agreements, Data availability, Five-year reports, Quality assurance, Users groups, Personnel, Other program features, New FIA Strategic Plan, Looking to 2016. This information can be used in many ways, such as evaluating wildlife habitat conditions, assessing sustainability of current ecosystem management practices, monitoring forest health, supporting planning and decision-making activities undertaken by public and private enterprises, and predicting the effects of climate change. Related products: Soil Manual Survey --New --2017 can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/soil-survey-manual-march-2017 Forest Health Monitoring: National Status, Trends, and Analysis, 2014 can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/001-000-04768-0?ctid=819 National Individual Tree Species Atlas can be found at this link: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/001-001-00703-0?ctid=819 Christmas Tree Pest Manual can be found at this link: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/001-000-04764-7?ctid=819 Other products available from the United States Forest Service can be found at this link: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/819 Environment & Nature publications can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/environment-nature Department of Agriculture (USDA) publications can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/department-agriculture-usda