In this issue we tell “The Truth about America’s forests.”

In the 12 years since the first printing of “The Truth” rolled off the press, more than 700,000 of you have ordered copies. From your thousands of letters we know that you use this reference book frequently. You cite it in Letters to the Editor and in speeches to local civic groups you support. Your school kids use it too, though they are more inclined to seek us out on our website.

We also know you trust this booklet implicitly because it is assembled from publicly funded databases and because the information we present is footnoted as to its source. We continue this tradition in this, our eighth printing. We are often asked how so much detailed information could be accurately gathered on such a large scale. To do its work the Forest Service maintains 3,112,000 aerial photography points, plus 124,463 inventory plots and 7,861 forest health plots. Although the agency’s monitoring program is far more advanced than it was when it was established in 1930 its accuracy still rests on a physical examination of public and privately owned forests that lie within selected plots from coast to coast [one plot per 6,000 acres of forestland]. Among the qualitative and quantitative measures taken on each of 124,463 inventory plots: tree diameter, tree quality, forest regeneration, site quality, forest type, stand age and evidence of natural or human disturbance.

To read the complete issue of this magazine, please click the link below.

"The Truth About America's Forests" - Spring, 2003