Estimating historical forest density from land-survey data: A response to Baker and Williams (2018).

In the Western United States, historical forest conditions are used to inform land management and ecosystem restoration goals (North et al. 2009, Stephens et al. 2016). This interest is based on the premise that historical forests were resilient to ecological disturbances (Keane et al. 2018). Researchers throughout the US have used the General Land Office (GLO) surveys of the late 19 and early 20 centuries to estimate historical forest conditions (Bourdo 1956, Schulte and Mladenoff 2001, Cogbill et al. 2002, Paciorek et al. 2016). These surveys were conducted throughout the US and represent a systematic, historical sample of trees across a broad geographic area. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.