Forest Assessment Home

North Carolina is blessed to have rich and diverse forest resources. From sea level to the tops of the Appalachian and Blue Ridge mountains, our forest resources have enriched the lives of all North Carolinians. They provide us with clean water and air, wildlife, recreation and forest products. They provide jobs and income as well as a place to escape from our jobs. They support the number one manufacturing industry in North Carolina. Our forest resources entice people to come to North Carolina and they make our state great.

All North Carolinians are stewards of our forest resources, and the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources (DFR) is directed to lead the people of our state to develop, protect and manage these resources to ensure that they will be conserved now and sustained for future generations. This is a daunting task and we must work together as partners to be successful.

Periodic reviews of our forest resources are needed to evaluate their ever-changing status and to access the ability of our programs to meet the conservation and sustainability directives listed above. The DFR is undertaking a statewide assessment of North Carolina's forest resources that will evaluate and analyze the past and current conditions and project the future conditions of these resources. This will help us plan for the conservation of these resources and the associated economic, ecological and public benefits these resources provide.

We plan to complete this assessment in the spring of 2010, and we invite you to help us and be a partner in this effort. This Web site will function as a coordination and communication link throughout the process, and we encourage you to visit often and advise others of our efforts. Working together we will be stronger and produce a better assessment that will lead us to achieve our goal to conserve and sustain our great forest resources.

Wib Owen,
North Carolina State Forester