Forests of South Dakota, 2017

This publication provides an overview of forest resources in South Dakota based on an inventory conducted by the USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program at the Northern Research Station (NRS) in cooperation with the South Dakota Department of Agriculture, Resource Conservation and Forestry Division. Estimates are based on field data collected using the FIA annualized sample design and are updated yearly. Information about the national and regional FIA program is available at http://fia.fs.fed.us. For the 2017 inventory, the statewide base sample was augmented by a double intensification of plots within the Black Hills National Forest, thus increasing the sample size compared to previous inventories. The double intensification was initiated in 2017 and will continue in the 2018 inventory. Estimates for current variables such as area, volume, and biomass are based on 8,391 samples (484 forested) collected from 2011–2017. Change variables, such as net growth, removals, and mortality, are based on 8,262 samples (391 forested) collected in 2006–2011 and resampled in 2011–2017. Estimates from earlier annual and periodic inventories are shown for comparison. See Bechtold and Patterson (2005), O'Connell et al. (2014), and Gormanson et al. (2018) for definitions and technical details. A complete set of inventory tables is available at https://doi.org/10.2737/FS-RU-158.