Geographic Resource Solutions

GRS Completes First (2016) Kuskokwim River Forest Inventory Field Season

July 31, 2016 - For Immediate Release

Geographic Resource Solutions completed its first BLM Alaska Forest Inventory field season in the middle Kuskokwim River drainage.  Field sampling took place over a five-week period, beginning on June 13th and ending on July 16th,  during which field staff sampled 148 field sites while traveling approximately 210 miles from east to west along the Kuskokwim River.  Sample stands were selected for use in GRS's subsequent application of their Discrete Classification Mapping Methodology (DCMM) based on the processing of Landsat 8 imagery from 2014 and 2015.  Sample stands were selected on the basis of image stratification results that identified the largest homogeneous areas of the different spectrally determined strata that represented the different forestlands in the middle Kuskokwim River drainage.  Sample sites were accessed from points traveled to by boat along the river(s) and then cross-country hiking.

GRS staff implemented the line-point transect sampling methodology to develop the usual species/landscape feature-specific canopy cover estimates, but which GRS has adapted to also develop forest inventory estimates that include species-specific estimates of trees/acres, height, cubic volume, and biomass (dry tons/acre).  All trees, shrubs, herbaceous and non-vascular plants were recorded, as well as landscape features that represented abiotic site features related to the sampled plant communities.  Integrated in this sampling approach were Brown's transects to estimate both counts of both coarse by decay class and fine woody debris by fuel class.  The resulting sample area summary data produced species-specific estimates of canopy cover, quadratic mean diameter, trees/acre, average heighth, cubic volume/acre, and biomass (dry tons)/acre.

Stumpf Line-point Transect Methodology, Results, and Benefits Presentation at ESA, 2014

GRS has posted the Line-point Methodology Presentation made by Ken Stumpf of GRS, Director Of Resource Management Applications on August 13, 2014 at the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Sacramento, CA., under the Densitometer - Canopy Cover Sampling of our Presentations, Publications, and Software subject.  This presentation was titled "A Venerable Range Management Field Data Collection Technique Used to Develop Plant Community Cover and Frequency Characteristics Provides Unexpected New Levels of Detailed Species-specific Information."

A version of the presentation with notes and comments is available at this link "A Venerable Range Management Field Data Collection Technique Used to Develop Plant Community Cover and Frequency Characteristics Provides Unexpected New Levels of Detailed Species-specific Information - with Comments".

For the description of this presentation from the ESA 2014 Annual Meeting website, please use this link.

For further information about these presentations or the materials contained within them, contact Ken at GRS by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or phone at (707)-822-8005.