IFMAP: The future of State Forest Inventory

The Integrated Forest Monitoring, Assessment, and Prescription (IFMAP) system is an inventory application being developed by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) within Forest Mineral and Fire Management Division and the Wildlife Division to suitably inventory resource information in a GIS-based system that integrates with numerous other resource inventories used by the agency. It is a logical progression from the Operations Inventory system (OI) that has collected and stored a computerized dataset for primarily tactical, timber management activities of the DNR for over 20 years.

OI is not GIS based, and it does not integrate well with the other inventory systems currently used by DNR. OI collects primarily observational resource information with a strong emphasis on timber management variables. While a few plots are taken in many stands, the data is not statically valid except when aggregated over very large geographical areas. In addition, spatial and temporal data is only available via comparison of subsequent measurements and comparing hand drawn maps to tabular information. The current need is for a more plot-based system that is also on a GIS platform allowing data to be taken, stored, and analyzed in both spatial and temporal terms.