Inventory-Based Landscape-Scale Simulation of Management Effectiveness and Economic Feasibility with BioSum.

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA)-based BioSum (Bioregional Inventory Originated Simulation Under Management) is a free policy analysis framework and workflow management software solution. It addresses complex management questions concerning forest health and vulnerability for large, multimillion acre, multiowner landscapes using FIA plot data as the initial stand conditions to conduct statistically representative analyses and simulations. The system now includes extensive data consistency and integrity checks for analytical quality assurance, access to any measured or calculated stand attribute for defining effective management and the capacity to project stands forward while allowing multiple, sequential management interventions, with stand metrics calculated at each time step, all available to drive the choice of what is best for each stand. One example of a policy-relevant finding based on this empirical analytic framework is that fire hazard reduction is both more effective and can occur without subsidy in most southern Oregon and northern California forests, provided that some medium-sized trees are removed; another is that harvest residues recovered for energy contribute only modestly to treatment feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]