Wednesday, August 8, 2007: 11:30 AM-1:15 PM
K, San Jose McEnery Convention Center
WK 24 - You can count on us: Decision support tools for forest carbon management and reporting
As more states and regions implement carbon registries and climate action plans, and more scientists study carbon in forests, the need to provide an accounting of forest carbon stocks now, in the future, and under a variety of management options is increasing. Producing carbon stock and stock change estimates is time consuming, especially at larger spatial scales. A variety of software tools have been developed by the Forest Service to meet this challenge; all produce estimates that are consistent with U.S. and international carbon reporting guidelines. This workshop will present interactive demonstrations of three of these tools. COLE, the Carbon OnLine Estimator, is web-based and produces reports and maps of carbon sequestration for forested areas of the continental U.S. COLE uses data collected by the Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA), augmented with other data and information from ecological studies, to create estimates at the county, state, regional, or national level. A variety of carbon pools can be summarized and estimates can also be categorized by forest type, landowner, productivity class, etc. The Carbon Calculation Tool, CCT, is downloaded to your PC and uses FIA data to calculate annualized carbon stock estimates for the continental U.S. at the state level or higher; these can be easily updated as additional inventory data become available. CCT replicates the process used by the Forest Service to produce forest carbon estimates supplied to EPA for the annual U.S. greenhouse gas inventory. The Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) is a national set of growth and yield models used by many land management agencies. Carbon accounting capability has been added to FVS, allowing land managers and scientists to generate carbon stock estimates for current forest conditions as well as projections for the future. FVS can simulate nearly any management activity; the carbon reporting capability enables assessment of the carbon consequences of various forest management alternatives, including prescribed fire.
Organizer:	Coeli M. Hoover, US Forest Service
Co-organizer:	Linda S. Heath, US Forest Service
Speaker:	Michael P. Spinney, NCASI

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See more of The ESA/SER Joint Meeting (August 5 -- August 10, 2007)