UTAH’S FOREST RESOURCES, 2008–2017

This report presents a summary of the most recent Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data of Utah’s forests based on field data collected between 2008 and 2017. Many of the results were compared to earlier reports using data from 2000–2005 (DeBlander et al. 2010), and from 2003–2012 (Werstak et al. 2016). Utah’s forest land covers 18 million acres, of which 39 percent (7 million acres) are administered by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of Interior, 35 percent (6.4 million acres) by the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and 15 percent (2.7 million acres) are privately owned. The State’s most abundant forest-type group is Pinyon/juniper woodland, which covers 10.5 million acres (58 percent). At 1.1 billion live trees, the Woodland softwoods species group (predominately pinyon and juniper species) is the most common by number of live trees (5.0 inches or greater in diameter), followed by the Cottonwood and aspen species group (231 million live trees). Woodland softwoods make up about 45 percent (6.7 billion cubic feet) of the State’s total live tree volume and 46 percent (121 million tons) of the biomass. Utah’s forests contain 15 billion cubic feet of net volume in trees 5.0 inches in diameter and larger with an average annual mortality of trees 5.0 inches in diameter or larger totaling 250 million trees per year, and a negative average annual net growth of 41 million trees per year. This report includes descriptive highlights and tables of area, number of trees, biomass, volume, growth, mortality, and removals, as well as trends based on past inventories on forest land. Most sections and tables are organized by forest type or forest-type group, tree species group, diameter class, or owner group.