The Forest Resources of the Hoosier National Forest, 2005 (Paperback)

Original publisher: Newtown Square, PA.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station, 2007] OCLC Number: (OCoLC)232959031 Subject: Forests and forestry -- Indiana -- Hoosier National Forest. Excerpt: ... Forest Land Area Quantifying the amount of land occupied by forests in the Hoosier is crucial to assessing Background: the current status and trends in the forest ecosystem, along with the impact of forest land acquisitions. Fluctuations in the forest land base may also indicate changing land use trends and forest health conditions. The area of forest land in the Hoosier has been steadily increasing since the first inventory What We Found: in 1968 because of land purchases and conversion ( Fig. 3 ). Forest land acreage estimates successively increased from 178,400 to 185,965 to 205,589 to 200,678 in years 1986, 1998, 2003, and 2005, respectively. Compared to the rest of Indiana and the Greater Hoosier Community ( GHC ), the Hoosier has a high proportion of forest land relative to total land area. Indiana is nearly 20 percent forested, the Greater Hoosier Community is more than 40 percent forested, and the Hoosier is more than 96 percent forested ( Fig. 4 ). During the last 20 years, total forest land acreage has increased by more than 12 percent on the Hoosier compared to more than six percent for the State of Indiana and around one percent for the GHC ( Fig. 5 ). The forest land area in the Hoosier has been increasing for decades at a rate greater than What This Means: that for the State of Indiana. However, this rate of increase is due to maturation / expansion of forest and land acquisition by the Hoosier. Additionally, the Hoosier exists in stark contrast to the rest of the land in the State and GHC in that nearly the entire land base is forested. Non-Federal lands near the national forest have had a forest land increase of only one percent during the past two decades, maintaining a rather stable forest land base. While the heavi...