Year: 1997
Type: book
Abstract: Forest Habitat Types of Wisconsin• The 1996 inventory of Wisconsin's forest resources included the use of the Wiscon- sin Forest Habitat Type Classification System (Kotar et al. 1988, Kotar and Burger 1996).The habitat type system is a method of site classification that uses floristic composition, particularly under story species, as an indicator of biological site capability.Knowledge of the biological potential of forest sites can lead to improved management.For convenience, the 95 habitat types recognized in Wisconsin were grouped into 15 habitat type groups: 7 northern and 8 southern.The groups represent steps of the moisture-nutrient gradient for each of the two regions.• In this inventory, the greatest acreages of forest land were classified as the North Mesic (2.3 million acres), North Wet-Mesic (2.2 million acres), and North Wet (2 million acres) habitat type group.• Of the 95 habitat types identified, the greatest acreages of forest land are classi- fied in the Lowland North, Hydromesic North, Lowland South, ArCi-Ph [Acer/ Circaea-Phryma), ATM (Acer-Tsuga/ Maianthemum) , AViO (Acer/Viola-Osmorhiza), and TMC [Tsuga/ Maianthemum-Coptis) habitat types.More than 400 thousand acres of forest land are found in each of these habitat types.• Regarding the major species groups, pine is primarily represented by dry site habitat groups, other softwoods by mesic to wet site habitat groups, soft hardwoods by mesic to wet-mesic site habitat groups, and hard hardwoods by dry-mesic to mesic site habitat groups.APPENDIX ACCURACY OF THE SURVEY Forest Inventory and Analysis information is based on a sampling procedure designed to provide reliable statistics at the State and Survey Unit levels.Consequently, the reported figures are estimates only.A measure of reliability of these figures is given by sampling errors.These sampling errors mean that the Major Steps in the New Survey Design I. Aerial photography (Phase 1) In this phase, two sets of random points were located on current aerial photography.The first is a set of new photo plots and the second is a set of relocated old ground plot locations from the 1983 inventory.Aerial photographs, taken from 1991 through 1993, that were used for Phase 1 of the inventory were black and white, infra-red at a scale of 1:15,840 for the Northeast, Northwest, and Central Units and at a scale of 1:24,000 for the Southeast and Southwest Units.The WDNR contracted this photography and loaned the photos to the Forest Service.The locadons of plots used in the 1983 inventory were transferred to these new photographs.The photographs were then assembled into township mosaics, and a systematic grid of 121 one-acre photo plots (each plot representing approximately 190.4 acres) was overlaid on each township mosaic.Each of these photo plots was examined by aerial photo interpretation specialists and classified stereoscopically based on land use.If trees were present, forest type and stand- size /density class were recorded.After this examination, all the old "disturbed" sample locations and one-third of the old "undisturbed" forested plots were sent to the field for survey crews to verify the photo classification and to take further measurements.All photo plot locations for the 1996 inventory were examined and were classified as shown in the tabulation below.A systematic sample of the aerial photo plots were selected to become ground plots in phase 2 of the procedure.Ground plots that defi- nitely were not forest land were given a nonforest ground land use classification and not sent to the field for measurement.
Authors: Thomas L. Schmidt, North Central Forest Experiment Station (Saint Paul, Minn.)
Language: English
Subfield: Forestry
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4240774451