Projects

Forest Infrastructure Mapping
To facilitate a better understanding of Washington State’s current and future forest sector potential, an integrated, publicly available, geospatial data gateway integrating new and existing datasets is proposed. The time estimates provided below include the collection, normalization, integration and publication of various datasets needed to support Washington State forest resource assessments.
WA State Parcel Database
Understanding land use and ownership patterns is critical for planning and making informed political decisions. We construct a standardized, regularly updated, statewide parcel database with information provided by city, county, state, and federal agencies. Since 2007 the Database has been the state standard for parcel information in Washington.
Washington State Forestland Database
The Washington State Forestland Database was developed to provide a comprehensive platform for understanding the spatial characteristics of all private forestland ownership in the state, including family forests.
OESF Type 3 Study FVS Simulations
We used a novel approach to simulate novel silvicultural treatments on the Olympic Peninsula. Pairing the Forest Vegetation Simulator with a solar radiation model allowed us to better predict growth after spatially explicit prescriptions. This study supports scientists with at the UW and DNR working on the Olympic Experimental State Forest Type 3 Watershed Study.
TNC Wood Innovation
We are comparing carbon outcomes in the standing forest and wood products over 90 years for forest management alternatives in Washington state that include business as usual management, shortened and extended rotations, fire, and climate change.
Tulalip Forest, Water, and Climate
We are working with a team of forestry, hydrology, and climate change scientists to assess forest management alternatives in the Snohomish basin to mitigate the effects of climate change on basin hydrology.
Washington Forest Structure
We're helping Washington DNR to develop a forest assessment and treatment framework based on a regularly updated set of current forest condition layers that we are developing from Digital Aerial Photogrammetry (DAP).
Maple Syrup Production Site Analysis
Using the 2019 Forestland Database we identified every potential site in Washington State for producing syrup from big leaf maple trees.
Washington's Small Forest Landowners in 2020
The Washington State Legislature tasked the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences to complete an analysis of Washington's Small Forest Landowners in 2020. We report on status and trends and provide recommendations after 20 years of Forests & Fish.
Washington State Agland Database
Building off of the Forestland Database, the Agland Database provides a comprehensive platform for analyzing agricultural lands in Washington State.
Forest and Ecosystem Management System
In support of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, a system is needed to understand the tradeoffs associated with alternative forest management regimes. Previous work by a member of our research team, Jeffrey Comnick, under the direction of Dr. Chad Oliver, led to the development of the current version of TOGGLE – an Excel-based tool for visualizing alternative forest management strategies. We are proposing to develop a modern, open-source system that will feel familiar to users of previous versions of TOGGLE and incorporates new data processing, storage and visualization techniques to build a scalable, collaborative platform for the future.
California Biopower
We are leading an assessment and mapping of net recoverable biomass that could be utilized for electricity generation. This analysis will focus on agricultural residues as well as forestry residues and fire reduction thinning material per the California Governor’s state of emergency brought on by the record numbers of drought and beetle- killed trees in the Sierra Nevada range.
Using Remote Sensing to Improve Wetland Maps
In Washington, the existing wetland inventory maps are out of date and inaccurate in many locations. Remote sensing data such as LiDAR, aerial and satellite imagery, digital elevation data, hydrography, and updated soil maps provide an opportunity to address these known shortcomings.
Wetland Mapping Tool
We are developing a GIS-based toolset to systematically compare and test different approaches and data types for remote mapping of wetlands.
Using Lidar to Improve Washington's Stream Typing
A component of the Washington State Forests & Fish Agreement depends on water type maps showing the location of fish and non-fish waters within forested areas of the state. We're investigating if the current model could be improved with high-resolution lidar data.
CMER Vegetation Monitoring
A study to assess the feasibility of applying remote sensing methodologies to evaluate riparian stand conditions on lands subject to Washington State’s forest practices regulations.
Washington State Historic Timber Harvest
We made non-spatial data, spatial, creating a series of maps for the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. These maps show who in Washington State has been harvesting timber and where they've been harvesting it back to 1965.
New Forest Owners
We are creating outreach maps and ownership lists from forest cover, survey, and parcel data to ensure that training programs are targeted and designed for best opportunities for enhancing sustainability among new woodland owners.
Public Land Inventory
Working with the State Recreation and Conservation Office, we collected data from local, state and federal partners to build a public lands database to answer the Legislature's question: "Where are Washington's public lands, how much did they cost, and when and why did we acquire them?"
NARA
Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance (NARA) is building a supply chain based on using forest residuals to make aviation biofuel. We're helping NARA collaborators understand what volume of forest residuals might be available over the next few decades.
Biofuels & Climate Change
The hybrid poplar suitability model developed for the Advanced Hardwood Biofuels NW program includes temperature and precipitation, factors expected to be impacted by climate change. We're using predicted climate variables from The Nature Conservancy's Climate Wizard to investigate the effects on growth.
Waste to Wisdom
This project is investigating the technologies to produce bioenergy and high value bioproducts from forest residue, with benefits of net reduction in GHG emissions and a sustainable economy in forestry-dependent communities. We are using GIS and forest inventory data to develop feedstock supply estimates throughout the Western United States.
Sealaska Riparian Assessment
We investigated a variety of methods to quantify riparian stand conditions in Southeast Alaska using remotely sensed imagery and inventory plots. A sophisticated riparian buffering algorithm for reporting stand conditions enables users to customize project outputs in diverse ways.
Anchor Forests
Insects, fire, vast tracts of unmanaged public ownership and a crumbling infrastructure have created challenges for forestry in Eastern Washington. Working with tribes, TNC, industry and environmental groups, we've leveraged our Forestland Database to determine what it will take to keep forestry viable there.
Kitsap Community Forest
We partnered with the Great Peninsula Conservancy and the Northwest Natural Resource Group for a study on the feasibility of nominating timberland on the Kitsap peninsula for the DNR Community Forest Trust program.
Western Washington Hardwood Assessment
Drawing from the Washington State Biomass Assessment database, this study estimated the volume of hardwoods by management zone, owner group, diameter class and species as of 2010, with projections through 2030.
ECOSEL
ECOSEL provides a way for the public to join forces and bid collaboratively or competitively to influence forest management on private land. The management alternative that attracts the most bids will be implemented by the landowner through a legally binding conservation easement. We're building the ECOSEL technology infrastructure and web site.
Washington State Forest Biomass Calculator
The Washington State Forest Biomass Calculator makes the data and tools that were used to develop the Washington State Forest Biomass Supply Assessment available to the public through an easy to use web application.
WA Forest Biomass Supply Assessment
Byproducts of sustainable forest operations can be utilized for fuel and energy production. With the DNR and TSS Consultants, we developed a statewide, spatially explicit, forest biomass supply assessment including production costs, transportation logistics, market prices, and value to the landowner.
Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest
To meet Renewable Fuel Standard targets the Pacific Northwest needs to develop the capacity to produce millions of gallons of renewable liquid transportation fuel each year. We're working with multiple university and industry partners across the Northwest to kick-start a hybrid-poplar biofuels supply chain.
Stratified LIDAR Sample Plots
The BLM has invested heavily in airborne laser scanning (LIDAR) data in Oregon. To relate LIDAR to forest inventory, we partnered with the Forest Service PNW Research Station to develop protocols to stratify by the most important LIDAR summary variables and identify where field sample plots should be located.
Strategic Forest Retention
Maintaining the privately owned forestry land base in Washington State is important to our long term economic and environmental sustainability, especially under the development pressures currently faced by land owners. This project identifies lands at highest risk of conversion from forestry.