Current Projects
The Future of Washington Forests and Forestry Industries: The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has requested a proposal to conduct several studies in response to the State Legislature’s request for a report on the future of Washington forests. This report is to examine the economic, recreational, and environmental trends influencing the forest land owners, forest products industry and secondary manufacturing sectors in Washington State.
Washington State Parcel Database : Digital parcel data stored in a geographic information system has become a critical source of information for resource land managers, community development, infrastructure maintenance, homeland security and business development. Washington State leaders, managers, researchers and business continually use GIS parcel data for decision making, science and resource management.
Washington State Forestland Database: To better understand where family forests are located and who owns them, the Rural Technology Initiative, the Family Forest Foundation, and the Washington Farm Forestry Association, with funding from the USDA Forest Service, are creating a statewide parcel-based forest land database.
Western Washington Land Use Change: In 2004, the USDA Forest Service's Forest Inventory Analysis (FIA) program contracted with the Rural Technology Initiative to investigate the potential of using satellite images as a more cost-effective and repeatable process to determine and calculate land use and its associated change.
Strategic Retention of Working Forests: The Retention of Working Forests Project is grounded in the Forest Land Parcel Data Base, funded by support obtained by the Family Forest Foundation and the Washington Farm Forestry Association and developed by the College of Forest Resources. Its focus was on forestland parcels and characteristics within the database (e.g. ownership type, streams, roads, wetlands and geological features). The project assessed potential productivity of working forests and their underlying biodiversity values and evaluated the risk of forest land conversion by comparing current market values vs. working forest values. (40 minute streaming video)
Quantifying the Geography of Forest Lands in Washington State: Since 2001 the Rural Technology Initiative in partnership with Washington State government, conservation organizations and forestry foundations has been seeking an understanding of the geography and demographics of forest lands and forest landowners in Washington State. |
