The Forest inventory story...

FIA & WisCFI.

Lumberjack has two contracts that provide a means of sustainability for the Council. The Forest Inventory Analysis (FIA) and the Wisconsin Continuous Forest Inventory (WiCFI). FIA is a nation-wide forest inventory carried out by the USFS. The Forest Service is responsible for measuring a given number of base level plots in each state. In Wisconsin, the number is around 550 and the data collected from a system of permanent plots allows annual tracking of forest conditions. The State of Wisconsin contracts with Lumberjack to measure an additional 550 plots so that the data can be analyzed for just Wisconsin and be statistically meaningful. 

WisCFI reports on the condition of Wisconsin's state forests using similar field protocols as FIA. WisCFI provides unbiased and reliable information at the property level and together with FIA data, provides the ability to compare to regional trends. The data is also used to assist state forest planning, management, and monitoring. The information collected from both programs is used to track the status and trends in forest extent, cover, volume, growth, mortality, removals, habitat and overall health.
 

Lumberjack’s forestry programs began in 1994 with the United States Forest Service’s (USFS) Forest Health Monitoring program (FHM) in Wisconsin. At that time the monitoring work was awarded in the form of a grant, now however the work is bid out as a five-year contract. In 2000, the FHM program (now called P3) was incorporated into the FIA program while FIA went from a periodic to an annual inventory. Previously FIA had been accomplished by permanent USFS employees. With the change to annual inventory, a portion of the total plots in Wisconsin are inventoried every year, with each plot revisited every seven years. WisCFI plots are revisited every five years.
 

Since 2000, Lumberjack’s inventory crews have worked on a variety of projects under the FIA/WiCFI project umbrella, including Wisconsin FIA, Michigan FIA, WiCFI, WiCFI Habitat Typing, FIA Habitat Typing, Wisconsin Urban FIA and USFS Wisconsin Ozone. Lumberjack and the USFS enjoy an excellent working relationship on both a supervisory level and at the field level.
 

Lumberjack has successfully bid on these projects in 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019.  Lumberjack has been successful because of its competitive pricing and highly-trained crew which has a USFS quality check average percentile score in the high nineties. Lumberjack’s FIA Supervisor, Paul Mueller, has a BS and MS in Forestry and has managed the crew since 2001.  He supervises a crew of six field foresters with a variety of experience.  The current FIA/WiCFI personnel have a collective experience of over 60 years in FIA data collection. 

COUNTIES:  In the Fall of 2018, Lumberjack began inventory for Bayfield and Iron Counties in Northern Wisconsin. With hopes of expanding into more Wisconsin counties, Lumberjack has expanded staff and training to meet varying needs.