The Trump administration says it wants to take better care of national forests. But the first step toward meeting that goal — knowing what’s growing and where — has lost momentum at the Forest Service.
That’s the conclusion of outside organizations and researchers who rely on the Forest Service’s forest inventory and analysis (FIA) program, which compiles data on the composition and health of not only national forests but of trees on public and private lands all over the country.
The program is suffering from the Department of Agriculture’s workforce reductions and from Congress’ sluggishness in passing appropriations for the fiscal year that started three months ago, according to an FIA user group organized by the Society of American Foresters and the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement.
Field surveys that should have started months ago have only recently begun, according to people close to the program, hampering agency goals on timber production, watershed protection, big-city tree plantings and other forest management priorities.
