DELINEATING POTENTIAL NORTH DAKOTA FOREST STEWARDSHIP AREAS

The rationale for constructing a land-cover model is threefold: to act as a testbed for understanding the driving forces and the dynamics of land-cover change, to understand the future economic and environmental implications of current conversion processes, and to serve as a means of projecting the impact of policy changes to the current trajectory. The North Dakota Stewardship case study provided key information concerning not only resource potential and vulnerability, but also the extent of professional management occurring around a given tract, respecting private property rights and confidential information. Landowners may find new opportunities to complement the activities already begun in a geographic area, or learn of a need to protect their tracts from a significant vulnerability such as invasive insects or fire threats. The stewardship analysis provided an ability to conserve and consolidate forest patch size in critical areas. In addressing a plan request backlog or as new opportunities arise to promote the Forest Stewardship Program, service and consultant foresters can build from a core base of forest land. They will be able to identify forest lands of high stewardship potential based either on richness of forest resources or on vulnerabilities, or a combination of the two. They will have enhanced information at their fingertips as they approach and work with forest landowners. The objectives of this spatial analyses project were primarily: (1) To determine and delineate potential stewardship tracts within North Dakota state by creating georeferenced spatial data, and (2) To determine priority lands (those lands of highest potential to benefit from the FSP) by providing tools necessary for North Dakota Forest Service to effectively and efficiently address critical forest resource issues. The analyses was based on extraction of significant facts embodied in the spatial and attribute databases generated. These analyses mapped out patterns and associations to help characterize stewardship areas generated.