FIA Library
FIA provides objective and scientifically credible information on key forest ecosystem processes: how much forest there is, what it looks like, whether the forest area is increasing or decreasing, whether we are gaining or losing species, how quickly trees are growing, dying, and being harvested, and how the forest ecosystem is changing over time with respect to the soil and other vegetative community attributes. Such information has many important uses including:
- Helping policy makers at the federal and state level to formulate good forest policy, and to assess the sustainability of current and past policy
- Enabling land managers to devise better management plans and to assess the effects of current and past management practices on the land
- Serving as a starting point for scientific investigations in a variety of areas which involve changes in forest ecosystems over time
- Formulating business plans which will be both economically and ecologically sustainable over time
- Keeping the public informed about the health and sustainability of the Nation's forests
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