Page 82 - GIS for Science, Volume 3 Preview

MAPPING TO SUPPORT FOREST PRODUCTS PRODUCERS
White oak is an extremely important tree species ecologically and because it helps maintain an economic engine worth billions of dollars. Domestic and global demand for white oak is surging due to its use in making barrels to support a booming distilled spirits industry. Although there may not be a current shortage of white oak trees, there is a shortage in the infrastructure required to harvest the wood and turn the materials into barrels. Thus, there’s a need to develop tools to promote and sustain white oak forests and support the economic and ecosystem benefits that those forests provide.
In 2010, an economic downturn depressed the forest products industry and accelerated mill closings and job losses in small towns across the United States. One bright spot was white oak cooperage (barrel-making). The FIA program worked with a leading spirits manufacturer to bring good news to some hard-hit communities by helping locate sites for new mills through data-intensive analytics and processing.
Now, with products such as the Bourbon Barrel Oak Finder (currently a demonstration application), that work can be done with a click of a button anywhere on a map. With tools such as ArcGIS GeoPlanner and the FIA API (and a little bit of Java programming), we can provide a set of metrics for a user-defined woodshed. These kinds of tools will help accelerate analyses and put the information resources directly in the hands of our users.
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Summary of oak volume trends for the area around Olympia, Kentucky.
Forest suitability for providing timber products (oak) that support bourbon barrel production within 50 miles of Olympia, Kentucky.
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