Mapped forest resources for Washington and Oregon, from a 1930s survey
dataset
posted on 2024-09-12, 20:16authored byConstance A. Harrington
Forest resources in Washington and Oregon were surveyed in the 1930s by employees of the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station. As part of this process, forest cover maps were created on paper at an original scale of 1:253,440. Forest and land cover types recorded include classifications such as: agricultural, balsam fir mountain hemlock, cedar-redwood, deforested burns, Douglas-fir, hardwood, juniper, lodgepole pine, non-forest pine mix, ponderosa pine, recent cutover, spruce-hemlock, subalpine and non-commercial, water, etc. An additional subcategory classification is also provided which gives additional insight into tree size classes for conifers or species group for hardwoods. These forest and land cover types are provided as both a shapefile and geopackage for Washington and Oregon combined. The 1928 McSweeney-McNary Forestry Research Act (P.L. 70-466, 45 Stat. 699-702) directed the Secretary of Agriculture to make and keep current a comprehensive inventory and analysis of the nation's forest resources. The decision was made to begin the nationwide survey with the Douglas-fir region and shortly thereafter to expand to the other forested lands of Washington and Oregon. Surveys were conducted between 1930 and 1936. Results of these surveys were reported in many formats including quarter state maps (4 maps per state) as well as many printed reports. The history of this project and copies of some of the early results as well, were published in Harrington (2003) which included a CD with a digital map (an ArcView GIS shapefile) for all of Washington and Oregon.
These data were collected using funding from the U.S. Government and can be used without additional permissions or fees. If you use these data in a publication, presentation, or other research product please use the following citation:
Harrington, Constance A. 2023. Mapped forest resources for Washington and Oregon, from a 1930s survey. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2023-0064