Northern Forest Inventory and Analysis Program

[Boyd]

A guy from the Forest service stopped by a couple days ago to ask permission to perform a "forest inventory" on my property. I agreed, all he wanted to do was collect data about the trees in one 24-foot diameter circle near the border with my neighbor's land.

This is the pamphlet they gave me that explains the methodology

https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/fia/landowner/docs/2013-fia-inf-03-08.pdf

I told him he was going to get a lot of ticks (they are just terrible here now) and he said he knew and already had lyme disease once. Told him about permethrin but not sure that it really sunk in.

Showed him the boydsmaps app on my phone to clarify exactly where he wanted to go. He thought that was cool and wrote down the URL. Anyway, I was not familiar with this project - here's some info if you're interested

https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/fia/

Here's the most recent (2019) summary for NJ - looks like you cannot link directly to it.

 

[Teegate]

They were most likely the people who traveled all over the pines a few years ago and took inventory of a circular area of trees. They put streamers around them all. I learned about them when someone I know confronted them along a road near their house and asked what they were doing. We were on a PBX hike that year and found them really deep in the woods where you would not think anyone would go. I have photo's of them somewhere.

 

[Teegate]

Scroll up to see the photos.

Little Hawkin Run ... A PBX Hike

All, On 2/16/2017 all members of PBX received the trip announcement from Bob concerning this hike. Here is an edited portion of it. Boys, get your gear on. Rope ‘er down an saddle up--make sure she’s well shod on this one! Our next trip is entitled “Little Hauken Run”. We’ll meet at 8:45...

forums.njpinebarrens.com

 

[Boyd]

Cool - have not gone to check the area he was studying, it's a pretty unremarkable place that I never go, near the neighbor's house. There were a couple plots on their land but only one on mine. Will have to see if it is marked with tape.

The man said he was doing tree counting. He goes to various locations that he is told to and picks any old tree in the area and counts the trees around it up to a certain distance. I would have to assume someone looks over aerial photo's of Wharton and maybe other places, and picks locations in every particular area and makes the decision on where he goes.

The link to the brochure in my OP describes the whole process... this is just an excerpt, there's quite a bit more detail in the brochure.

Three-Phase Sample
We inventory the northern forests using a three-phase sample. In Phase 1, we use satellite imagery to determine forest area in each state and determine which plots are measured in the field. In Phase 2 (field plots), we visit a selection of the forested acres identified in Phase 1 to further describe the forests. In Phase 3, we visit a subsample of the Phase 2 plots during the summer to collect additional information when foliage is present.