Virginia's Forests, 2016

The Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Southern Research Station’s (SRS) Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) research work unit and cooperating State forestry agencies conduct annual forest inventories of resources in the 13 Southern States (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia), the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The primary objective in conducting these inventories is to gather the multiresource information needed to formulate sound forest policies, provide information for economic development, develop forest programs, and provide a scientific basis to monitor forest ecosystems. These data are used to provide an overview of forest resources that may include, but is not limited to, forest area, forest ownership, forest type, stand structure, timber volume, growth, removals, mortality, management activity, down woody material, carbon storage and sequestration, and invasive species. The information presented is applicable at the State and survey unit level; although it provides the background for more intensive studies of critical situations, it is not designed to reflect resource conditions at small scales. 

Foreword  ii

Acknowledgments  ii

List of Figures   v

List of Tables  vii

Highlights  x

Introduction  1

Area 2

Forest Land Area and Nonforest Land Uses   2

Forest Ownership, Forest Types, and Stand Size  3

Forests and Land Use Change  7

Number of Trees, Volume, and Biomass  11

Growth, Removals, and Mortality 16

Treated acres  19

Disturbance and Forest Health Indicators 20

Disturbance 20

Standing Dead Trees, Down Woody Materials, Forest Duff and Litter  20

Carbon 26

Pests, Diseases, and Species of Concern  27

Literature Cited 32

Glossary 34 

Appendix A—Inventory Methods  35 

Phase 1 35

Phase 2  35

Phase 3   36

Summary 36

Appendix B—Data Reliability 37

Measurement Error 37

Sampling Error 41

Appendix C—Supplemental Tables  43

Federal and state officials responsible for forestry management, private sector users of forestry products, environmentalists concerned about the state of the forests.