Virginia Department
of Forestry

Field Notes: Ground Truthing Forest Data

January 22, 2021 - By John Pemberton, VDOF FIA Program Manager, and Ryan Hewitt, FIA Specialist When you read facts about Virginia’s forestland, do you ever wonder where this information comes from? In many cases, the source is the Forest Inventory & Analysis (FIA) program. FIA field crews put boots on the ground to collect information such as the number of acres of forestland (approximately 16 million); the most common forest type (upland hardwood,... Read More