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Forest Service Research & Development


The Research and Development arm of the Forest Service, a component of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, works at the forefront of science to improve the health and use of our Nation's forests and grasslands. Research has been part of the Forest Service mission since the agency's inception in 1905.

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Each year, Forest Service scientists collaborate with one another, scientists from partner institutions, and with resource managers to write and publish thousands of peer reviewed publications in hundreds of scientific journals plus books, conference proceedings, and Forest Service reports. Research Stations also produce a variety of science synthesis publications that provide plain-language topic summaries and pathways to in-depth research. Each of these scholarly publications are available for free in the Treesearch collection of publications, now offering nearly 60,000 full text documents.

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The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the USDA Forest Service Research and Development Branch collects, processes, analyzes, and reports on data necessary for assessing the extent and condition of forest resources in the United States.

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We offer a wide array of dashboards, models, tools and decision support frameworks. Here you can find federally developed products available to anyone with no licensing or acquisition costs. 

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