Research - Alaska

Analysis Team – Anchorage

Bill van Hees – Team leader

Bert Mead – Research forester

Beth Schulz – Research forester

Ken Winterberger – Forester

Team expertise

– Remote sensing techniques (Winterberger)– Vegetation community structure & dynamics (Mead, Schulz)– Forest resource assessment (Mead, van Hees)– Inventory techniques (All)

Research - Alaska

• Remote sensing– Development of forest/nonforest GIS layer for state– Development of biomass layer (productive/nonproductive forest)– Investigation of LIDAR application

• Vegetation community dynamics– Changes in community structure in the face of disturbance (Kenai) – Vegetation community classification

• Down woody material– Changes in fuel loading and structure

• Inventory– Design of inventory for interior Alaska– Kenai remeasurement analysis– South-central coastal Alaska assessment

• Quality assurance– Analysis of QA data

Research - AlaskaResearch projects

Uses of RD&A outputs

– R10 forest plan development– Model for inter-agency monitoring plans (KNWR)– Input to community understanding of forest dynamics (KBK)– Supporting science of biomass estimation for carbon credit grant programs– New vegetation community types identified and described– Timber product output estimation and tracking

Research - Alaska

Services provided to clients

– Consultation

– Remote sensing expertise

– Data analysis

– Project planning – inventory design

Research - Alaska

Research - Alaska

Recent Research Publications

• Changes in Downed and Dead Woody Material Following a Spruce Beetle Outbreak on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - PNW RP

• Predicting forest attributes in southeast Alaska using artificial neural networks – Forest Science

• Reproducibility of vegetation cover estimates in southcentral Alaska - Journal of Vegetation Science

• Characterization of Tongass National Forest mapped timber volume strata using an extensive, systematic sample - PNW-RP

• Are Alaskan trees found in locally more favourable sites in marginal areas? - Global Ecology and Biogeography

• A comparison of two estimates of standard error for a ratio-of-means estimator for a mapped-plot sample design in Southeast Alaska – PNW RN

• Ocular estimates of understory vegetation structure in a closed Picea glauca/Betula papyrifera forest - Journal of Vegetation Science

• Forest type definitions by cluster analysis - Western Journal of Applied Forestry

• Constancy and cover of plants in the Petersburg and Wrangell Districts, Tongass National Forest and associated private and other public lands, southeast Alaska - PNW RP

Research - Alaska

Recent Resource Publications

• Extensive, strategic assessment of southeast Alaska’s vegetative resources - Journal of Landscape Management.

• Southeast Alaska 2000 inventory highlights - PNW GTR

• Forest resources of southeast Alaska, 2000 – Results of a single-phase systematic

sample - PNW RP

• Chapter 6 - The Pacific Coast Region, United States Timber Industry - an assessment of timber product output and use, 1996 - SRS-GTR

Research - Alaska

Recent Conference Presentations

• Broad-scale spruce forest change, Kenai Peninsula, 1987-2000 – Homer, Alaska

• Phytomass associated with the spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis Kirby) epidemic on Kenai Peninsula and other Alaska studies – Reforestation Counci

• Vegetative Indicators of Forest Health. Alaska Native Plant Society.

• The Vegetation Diversity and Structure Indicator. National FIA Symposium

• Land cover and vegetation diversity in southeast Alaska. National FIA Symposium

• Challenges in Extensive Forest Health Monitoring: The Vegetation Diversity and Structure Indicator. North American Forest Ecology Workshop

• Mapping in the Pacific Coast states. National FIA Symposium

• Wildfire History - Getting it right using maps, ground plots, aerial photos, and satellite imagery. ASPRS National Meeting

• Extensive, strategic assessment of southeast Alaska’s vegetative resources - Presented at: Tongass Land Management Plan Follow-on Research Studies, Ketchikan, Alaska