Geographic Information System Skills for Foresters and Natural Resource Managers provides a resource for developing knowledge and skills concerning GIS as it applies to forestry and natural resource management. This book helps readers understand how GIS can effectively be used by professional foresters and land managers to conduct spatial analyses or address management decisions. Through topics presented, readers will improve their ability to understand GIS data sources, identify GIS data types and quality, perform common spatial analysis processes, create GIS data, produce maps, and ultimately develop the skills necessary to use GIS analysis to answer real-world questions. This book will be of great benefit to GIS users looking to directly apply techniques to real-world data or foresters and natural resource scientists who use GIS in their research.

Mapping Human and Natural Systems covers our increasingly digital world - internet communications, cloud computing, etc., and how our ability to quickly and visually communicate is becoming increasingly important. The book provides the reader with a ready reference to learn about map creation and interpretation and to help them better interact with, and construct, maps. There are several software systems available that focus on maps and mapping, but no single resource that covers the fundamentals of mapping. This book fills that need.

Forest Management and Planning, Second Edition, addresses contemporary forest management planning issues, providing a concise, focused resource for those in forest management. The book is intermixed with chapters that concentrate on quantitative subjects, such as economics and linear programming, and qualitative chapters that provide discussions of important aspects of natural resource management, such as sustainability. Expanded coverage includes a case study of a closed canopy, uneven-aged forest, new forest plans from South America and Oceania, and a new chapter on scenario planning and climate change adaptation.

Introduction to Forestry and Natural Resources, Second Edition, presents a broad, completely updated overview of the profession of forestry. The book details several key fields within forestry, including forest management, economics, policy, utilization and forestry careers. Chapters deal specifically with forest regions of the world, landowners, forest products, wildlife habitats, tree anatomy and physiology, and forest disturbances and health. These topics are ideal for undergraduate introductory courses and include numerous examples and questions for students to ponder. There is also a section dedicated to forestry careers. Unlike other introductory forestry texts, which focus largely on forest ecology rather than practical forestry concepts, this book encompasses the economic, ecological and social aspects, thus providing a uniquely balanced text. The wide range of experience of the contributing authors equips them especially well to identify missing content from other texts in the area and address topics currently covered in corresponding college courses.

Forest Plans of North America presents case studies of contemporary forest management plans developed for forests owned by federal, state, county, and municipal governments, communities, families, individuals, industry, investment organizations, conservation organizations, and others in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The book provides excellent real-life examples of contemporary forest planning processes, the various methods used, and the diversity of objectives and constraints faced by forest owners. Chapters are written by those who have developed the plans, with each contribution following a unified format and allowing a common, clear presentation of the material, along with consistent treatment of various aspects of the plans. This work complements other books published by members of the same editorial team (Forest Management and Planning, Introduction to Forestry and Natural Resource Management), which describe the planning process and the various methods one might use to develop a plan, but in general do not, as this work does, illustrate what has specifically been developed by landowners and land managers. This is an in-depth compilation of case studies on the development of forest management plans by the different landowner groups in North America. The book offers students, practitioners, policy makers, and the general public an opportunity to greatly improve their appreciation of forest management and, more importantly, foster an understanding of why our forests today are what they are and what forces and tools may shape their tomorrow. Forest Plans of North America provides a solid supplement to those texts that are used as learning tools for forest management courses. In addition, the work functions as a reference for the types of processes used and issues addressed in the early 21st century for managing land resources.

Forest planning practices involve economic, biometric, and operations research methods and processes. For the past fifty years, forest planning has involved sophisticated quantitative methods. For the past thirty years, advances in computer technology have allowed intricate and complex functional relationships between forests and planning goals to be recognized. Presented in this text are a large number of terms often used in conjunction with forest planning processes. The concepts range from basic terms, such as costs or objectives, to advanced terms that relate to stand-level and forest-level analyses. These include classical volume control methods, linear programming, and the more commonly used heuristic techniques. Both graphical and quantitative examples are periodically provided to help one understand the concepts presented. This book should be useful to natural resource managers and other professionals who develop forest management plans or are involved in forest management planning.

Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) facilitate navigational and positioning services of natural resource managers. They are based on electromagnetic energy emitted by devices (satellites) located in outer space, and received by devices on Earth for which a position needs to be established. The accuracy of positions determined by GNSS receivers operating in a forested environment is the focus of this book. We briefly explore the current and developing satellite systems of the world, signal augmentation processes, sources of error, and measurement of accuracy. We then summarize a large portion of the research that has been published in the last decade regarding data collected in forests, describe concerns related to the communication of levels of accuracy, and outline knowledge gaps that need further investigation. This book should be useful to both professionals who employ GNSS technology or advise organizations on the adoption of GNSS technology. In addition, the book should be useful to researchers who are interested in assessing horizontal and vertical accuracy of GNSS technology in a forested environment.