Southern New England Forests 2017 PDF Download

This executive summary summarizes the results of the seventh inventory of the forests of Southern New England, defined as Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, conducted by the USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program. Previous inventories were conducted in 2012, 2007, 1998, 1985, 1972, and 1953. Information in this report includes forest context, forest features, forest health, and ecosystem services. There are an estimated 5.2 million acres of forest land across the region: 3.0 million acres in Massachusetts, 1.8 million acres in Connecticut, and 370 thousand acres in Rhode Island. This amount has not changed substantially since the last inventory was completed in 2012. There are 2.5 billion trees on this forest land that have a total volume of 14.2 billion cubic feet. Red maple and eastern white pine are the most common species in terms of both numbers of trees and volume. Nearly half (48.7 percent) of the forest land is classified as the oak-hickory forest type group. A detailed interactive report is available at https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-RB-125-INT, and supplemental information, including (1) tables summarizing quality assurance, (2) a core set of tabular estimates for forest resources, and (3) user and database guides for P2 and P2+ protocols, can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-RB-125.