The USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program is pleased to announce the 2008 FIA Symposium. The symposium will emphasize innovative uses of FIA data that shed new light on contemporary issues, such as carbon, climate change, fire, bio-energy/biomass, forest health, and other topics. Plenary and breakout sessions from a variety of disciplines will be presented.

Symposium Goals

Present ways that FIA has aided in policy and management decisions,
Provide a forum for linking issue-focused analyses with techniques development,
Exchange of science and technology between FIA regions,
Showcase collaborative ventures and foster continued work with FIA partners,
Display state-of-the-art science and tools, and
Communicate utility of FIA data and analyses to the broader user community.

Location and Format

The conference will be held in Park City, Utah.  The format will include morning plenary sessions covering advanced science topics followed by concurrent focus sessions.

The Symposium is at the Grand Summit Hotel, 4000 The Canyons Resort Drive, Park City, UT.  A block of rooms is held under “FIA Symposium” and reservations can be made by calling:  888-226-9667 for a rate of $80 US.  The block of rooms will be held until September 5.  Reservations must be cancelled more than 7 days prior to arrival to avoid forfeiture of one night’s lodging.

Call for Papers and Sessions

Papers and breakout sessions on applications or technologies related to the symposium theme and related science are invited.  Examples of appropriate topics are:

Potential effects of global warming on forest character and wildlife habitat,
Estimating and tracking carbon sequestration in time and space,
Using FIA data in development of fire and fuels, spatial datasets, estimation, and modeling fire behavior,
Assessing biomass stocks and bio-energy potential,
Comparing current conditions to desired conditions,
Monitoring trends over time and space, including forest resources, forest health, invasive species, wilderness, rangeland, etc.,
Role of wilderness in our changing world,
Integrating FIA data with remote sensing and GIS applications,
Statistical issues in annual surveys, and
New quantitative approaches for analyzing emerging issues, and related science.

If you would like to submit a paper or breakout session, please submit an abstract to the program committee.  Abstracts should be limited to 300 words in length and must identify all authors, affiliation, and a title.  To contribute a session, submit an abstract and include the names of contributors.  Then, have each contributor send an abstract for their paper.  Each breakout session will be about 2 hours long, allowing for 4 to 6 papers depending on the length of each presentation.  There will be space for posters to be displayed for participants if needed.

Abstracts are due May 30, 2008 and should be submitted to:

Will McWilliams
USDA Forest Service
11 Campus Blvd, Suite 200
Newtown Square, PA, USA   19073
wmcwilliams@fs.fed.us (e-mail submissions are preferred)
610-557-4050

Final selection of papers and sessions will be made by July 15, 2008 and the selected authors will be notified.

Publication

All presenters are given the opportunity to publish a brief manuscript (10 pages or so) on their work.  The proceedings will be published as a Rocky Mountain Research Station General Technical Report in CD format expected by the Spring of 2009.  Manuscripts are due in complete and fully edited form by December 15, 2008.

Web Page

Information on the symposium will be posted at:  http://www.fia.fs.fed.us/symposium/

Registration

Registration procedures are attached below.

 
Registration Form

FIA Symposium 2008
October 21st - 23rd, 2008 in Park City, Utah, USA
  
Please print and complete the second page of this registration form and send it via either mail or fax to the attention of Tammerah Garren (Tgarren@ncasi.org) with payment information as follows:
        Attn: Tammerah Garren
        Fax: +919-941-6401
        US Postal Service:
                 NCASI
                 P.O. Box 13318
                 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3318 USA
        Parcel Delivery Service:
                 NCASI
                 4815 Emperor Blvd., Suite 110
                 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3318 USA.

Please carefully read the following:
Payment other than by credit card must be in US dollars. Checks should be made payable to NCASI.
Registration fees are due 15 August 2008 and are not refundable after 03 October 2008.  Everyone (except students) is charged a late fee after 15 August 2008, and presenters may be dropped from the agenda if they havent registered by this date.
Student registrations must be accompanied by a letter from the students department on official letterhead attesting to the students status and must be signed by a department faculty member.
All requests for refunds will be charged a $50.00 processing fee.
The Symposium will be held at The Canyons Grand Summit Hotel, Park City, Utah, USA (Telephone: 866-604-4171).  All participants are expected to make their own lodging and other accommodation reservations.

Registration Form

The 2008 FIA Symposium
October 21st - 23rd, 2008 in Park City, Utah, USA

Name:     __________________________________
Title:     __________________________________
Organization/Affiliation:   __________________________________
Complete mailing address:  __________________________________
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e-mail address:       __________________________________
telephone:                    __________________________________
fax:                    __________________________________

REGISTRATION FEE:
On or before 15 Aug 2008: $150.00 ______________________
After 15 Aug 2008:  $200.00    ______________________
Student fee*:             $50.00        ______________________
*See Item 3 on previous page

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