Context US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis National Program. The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program of the U.S. Forest Service provides the information needed to assess America's forests. https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/ Content As the Nation's continuous forest census, our program projects how forests are likely to appear 10 to 50 years from now. This enables us to evaluate whether current forest management practices are sustainable in the long run and to assess whether current policies will allow the next generation to enjoy America's forests as we do today. FIA reports on status and trends in forest area and location; in the species, size, and health of trees; in total tree growth, mortality, and removals by harvest; in wood production and utilization rates by various products; and in forest land ownership. The Forest Service has significantly enhanced the FIA program by changing from a periodic survey to an annual survey, by increasing our capacity to analyze and publish data, and by expanding the scope of our data collection to include soil, under story vegetation, tree crown conditions, coarse woody debris, and lichen community composition on a subsample of our plots. The FIA program has also expanded to include the sampling of urban trees on all land use types in select cities. For more details, see: https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/library/database-documentation/current/ver70/FIADB%20User%20Guide%20P2_7-0_ntc.final.pdf Fork [this kernel][2] to get started with this dataset. Acknowledgements https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/ https://cloud.google.com/blog/big-data/2017/10/get-to-know-your-trees-us-forest-service-fia-dataset-now-available-in-bigquery FIA is managed by the Research and Development organization within the USDA Forest Service in cooperation with State and Private Forestry and National Forest Systems. FIA traces it's origin back to the McSweeney - McNary Forest Research Act of 1928 (P.L. 70-466). This law initiated the first inventories starting in 1930. Banner Photo by [@rmorton3 from Unplash][3]. Inspiration Estimating timberland and forest land acres by state. ![enter image description here][1] https://cloud.google.com/blog/big-data/2017/10/images/4728824346443776/forest-data-4.png [1]: https://cloud.google.com/blog/big-data/2017/10/images/4728824346443776/forest-data-4.png [2]: https://www.kaggle.com/paultimothymooney/starter-kernel-for-usfs-dataset [3]: https://unsplash.com/photos/hjdQdd3oudQ