| Abstract: | Abstract Forest sustainability has emerged as a crucial component of all current issues related to forest management. The seven Montreal Process Criteria are well accepted as categories of processes for evaluating forest management with respect to sustainability, and data collected by the Forest and Inventory Analysis (FIA) program of the United States Forest Service are well suited for such evaluations. The FIA program focuses on the collection, analysis, and distribution of data for a core set of variables obtained using a plot configuration, a sampling design, and measurement protocols that all feature national consistency. Plot, subplot, and tree-level observations include traditional mensurational measurements such as forest area, tree species, diameter, and survival and a suite of non-tree measurements related to the health of the forest. FIA data are recognized for their completeness, geographic coverage, and accessibility to users via a user-friendly interface to a national database. Three examples for three different regions of the United States illustrate the relevance and utility of FIA data for environmental and ecological assessments in the context of the Montreal Process. Several conclusions may be drawn from the examples: (1) for the Southern region, the forest land base is stable, and growing stock volume is increasing; (2) for the Mid-Atlantic region, contributions to carbon accumulation are slightly greater than for storage, and storage increases from north to south; and (3) for the Central Hardwoods region, tree species richness increases from north to south and from west to east and is stable or slightly increasing. |
