NED Products

Stand Inventory Processor (NED-SIPS)

Brian T. Simpson, R. Peter Kollasch, Mark J. Twery, Thomas M. Schuler

NED-SIPS is an initial product of the development of NED. The computer program, subtitled Stand Inventory Processor and Simulator (NED-SIPS), provides an effective means of creating, managing, and analyzing forest inventory records at the stand level. Its user-friendly interface relieves the pain of entering and editing stand inventory data, and once data are entered, a host of analytical tools are available to help understand the data. A variety of reports can be generated describing the vegetation structure, timber value, and economics of the stand. The user may apply any of a set of standard treatments to the stand or design a customized cutting scheme, and utilize one of the four incorporated stand growth simulators to show what the stand may look like in the future.

Some features of NED-SIPS are:

• User-friendly interface featuring “pull-down” menus and context-sensitive help.
• Access to four growth and yield simulators using the same data file format. These four simulators, NE TWIGS, SILVAH, OAKSIM, and FIBER, were all developed independently by scientists with the Northeastern Station for use in the Northeast.
• Overstory summary tables for common measures of stand characteristics (that is, density, species composition, volume, and so on).
• Economic analyses of incomes and expenses over the planning horizon.

The relationship of NED-SIPS to NED:

NED-SIPS is one of a group of computer programs intended to support good forest stewardship. The full set of tools is known collectively as NED, a computer-based, decision-support system being developed by the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. NED will provide site-specific analyses of management alternatives and expert recommendations to improve management for multiple values on forests in the Northeastern United States. These expert recommendations will be based on the full range of resource values, including wildlife habitat, visual qualities, and watershed and ecological characteristics, as well as traditional timber and economic values. This will be accomplished by incorporating the knowledge of many resource experts into the system, and using that knowledge along with inventory data describing the present state of a forest management unit, to build prescriptions that define a path for managing the forest with silvicultural techniques in a way that should accomplish the user's goals.

The NED-SIPS program is intended for use by a wide range of organizations and individuals, including national and state forestry organizations, forest industries, private organizations, and educational groups. The design of the program, however, does assume certain fundamental knowledge of forestry and natural resource management.

Documentation and Downloads

Document	Format
NED/SIPs (2.27 MB) Self-extracting zip file	exe
NED-SIPS Users Manual	pdf
Frequently Asked Questions about NED/SIPs (This document is in PDF format. You can obtain a free PDF reader from Adobe.)	pdf