Data management and access

Forest Analysis and Inventory Branch is pleased to announce that the Forest Inventory data that you downloaded from the BC Data Catalogue or viewed through internet mapping applications such as IMAP or Mapview in the past year, has been updated. This updated version of the provincial forest inventory is now posted and available for download.

Key to this year’s inventory update is the integration of approximately 854,000 hectares of wildfire impacted forest inventory for the 2021 fire year. The document link below describes the method used to estimate timber mortality in areas affected by wildfires in British Columbia in 2021.

• Estimates of mortality in areas affected by the 2021 wildfires (PDF, 430KB)

Additional updates to the inventory in this release include:

• The attributes of all forested polygons updated to reflect stand growth current to 2021
• The integration of approximately 252 map sheets (2.86 million hectares) of new VRI photo interpretation in Fort St. James, Lillooet, Cranbrook, Vancouver Island North, and Revelstoke
• The update of approximately 18,000 openings to reflect harvesting and silviculture activities (Depletion, Regeneration, and Free Growing submissions reported through RESULTS)
• The label format has been changed for polygons with low crown closure tree components (total crown closure < 5% in all live layers).  The new label arrangement places the non-tree and non-vegetated data (herb/shrub or Non-Forest/NP descriptor) above the tree data to emphasize the low crown closure aspect of the polygon

A description of the burn severity mapping process for the 2021 wildfire season:  

• Burn severity mapping (PDF, 160KB)

Issue with 2020 annual forest inventory

•  An error was identified in the FULL_LABEL field, where several of the ‘\’ line separator characters were missing.  The issue has been resolved and the data sets in the BCGW and the BC Data Catalogue have been updated (February 25, 2021).

2020 annual forest inventory release

Changes to the inventory in this release include:

• The attributes of all forested polygons updated to reflect stand growth current to 2020

• The integration of approximately 120 map sheets (1.5 million hectares) of new VRI photo-interpretation in Fort St. James, Lillooet, Cranbrook, Nechako, and Vancouver Island North

• The update of approximately 47,000 openings to reflect harvesting and silviculture activities (Depletion, Regeneration, and Free Growing submissions reported through RESULTS)

• Integration of approximately 13,000 hectares of wildfire adjustments for the 2020 fire year

• VRI data products including historical data

Important updates to this year’s inventory include:

• Integration of approximately 12.4 million hectares of new Landscape Vegetation Inventory (LVI) data in the Cassiar TSA

Additional changes to the inventory in this release include:

• The attributes of all forested polygons updated to reflect stand growth current to 2019

• The integration of approximately 179 map sheets (2.6 million hectares) of new VRI photo-interpretation in Fort St. James, Merritt, Prince George, Nechako, Churn Creek and Cranbrook.

• The completion of forest inventory data integration for Tree Farm Licenses (TFLs) 6, 19, 25, 37, and 39

• The update of approximately 4,500 openings to reflect harvesting and silviculture activities (Depletions and Regeneration submissions reported through RESULTS).

• Integration of approximately 17,000 hectares of wildfire adjustments for the 2019 fire year.  Please note that the adjustments were a generalization of the knowledge gained in previous years, as outlined in the link below:

• 2018 VRI fire update (PDF, 770KB)

• VRI data products including historical data

Important updates to this year’s inventory include:

• Integration of 1.3 million hectares of wildfire adjustments for the 2018 fire year

The document links below provide information on the wildfire methodology:

• 2018 VRI fire update

Additional changes to the inventory in this release include:

• The attributes of all forested polygons updated to reflect stand growth current to 2018.

• The integration of approximately 130 map sheets (2 million hectares) of new VRI photo-interpretation in Fort St. James, Merritt, Prince George, and Southern Vancouver Island (including private lands).

• The integration of forest inventory data for Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 48 and partial integration of forest inventory data for TFLs 6, 19, 25, 37, and 39.

• The update of approximately 10,000 openings to reflect harvesting and silviculture activities (Depletions and Regeneration submissions reported through RESULTS).

VRI data products including historical data

Issues with 2017 annual forest inventory:

• Error in VRI 2017 annual forest release version with TFL 8 (PDF, 200KB)(​October 31st, 2018)

Important updates to this year’s inventory include:

• Integration of 925,000 hectares of wildfire adjustments for the 2016 and 2017 fire years.

• Adjustment to the provincial biomass calculations to align and replicate the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) biomass calculations and models.

The document links below provide information on the wildfire and biomass methodologies:

• 2017 VRI fire update (PDF, 135) (published May 2018)

• VRIMS annual forest inventory biomass estimations (PDF, 30KB) (published May 2018)

Additional changes to the inventory in this release include:

• The attributes of all forested polygons updated to reflect stand growth current to 2017.

• The integration of approximately 385 map sheets (5 million hectares) of new VRI photo-interpretation, including VRI data for Tree Farm Licenses (TFLs) 8 and 52, and private lands on the southern half of Vancouver Island.

• The update of approximately 24,000 openings to reflect harvesting and silviculture activities (Depletions and Regeneration submissions reported through RESULTS).

VRI data products including historical data

The 2016 forest inventory release reflects a number of changes to the forest inventory to account for the large natural losses due to the mountain pine beetle (MPB) and for wildfires since 2007. It also reflects the integration of a LiDAR project on northern Vancouver Island to improve the estimates of stand height and a Landscape Vegetation Inventory in the Cariboo.  

The document below provides in-depth details of the methodology used for the adjustment made to the provincial forest cover for the 2015. The 2016 release provides an update for annual growth to the data released as the 2015 Annual Forest Inventory.

• Adjusting the Forest Cover to Reflect Mountain Pine Beetle Impacts, Fires and LiDAR Data Acquisition (PDF, 2.2MB) 

The methodology used to account for  the MPB  changes to the inventory for the past five years had been accomplished by projecting the inventory attributes, calculating volume and then depleting the projected inventory volume by the MPB predicted mortality. This process is documented in the document below. This methodology required a great deal of manual intervention and changes to stand structure were only reflected in the forest tree volumes and stand density and not to the stand species composition, basal area, or other stand attributes.

• Changes to VEG_COMP_LYR_R1_POLY to account for mountain pine beetle losses in 2012 (PDF, 680KB)

The 2016 projection is an update for annual growth on the 2015 inventory (released December 2016) With both releases government  implemented some infrastructure changes to the operational database (VRIMS) and projection model (VDYP7) to accommodate the changes for the MBP impacts. First a new layer ‘D’ or dead layer was created in the VRIMS operational database. This uses the same data model as is used for new inventories to be able to keep track of dead trees in inventory stands. Changes to the natural stand projection tool VDYP7 were done to allow the calculation of the stand volume for the live and dead layers. 

The forest inventory release includes our standard data product as well as a few new products as described below:

VEG_COMP_LYR_R1_POLY (our standard product): provides the estimates of forest inventory for the rank 1 tree layer. This is the workhouse dataset for almost all analysis and it has the total dead volume for the polygon identified in the attribution as well as the attribution for the dominant (Rank 1) stand composition.

VEG_COMP_VDYP7_INPUT_POLY_AND_LAYER (NEW) provided estimates for the projection and creation of yield tables using the latest version of VDYP. 

The VEG_COMP_POLY and the VEG_COMP_LAYER: are new table products that will provide analysts with  the spatial forest cover estimates for all layers identified including the Dead layer ( Layer_D). This provides more information for the stands following the MPB outbreak, other stands with a significant dead component from other causes, and other live tree layers that were not provided to the public previously requires the use of a one to many join to the polygon for analysis.

This release of the Forest Inventory differs from the 2014 Forest Inventory to reflect changes in growing stock of the forests, in areas updated for harvest and fire and for attribute adjustments to account for the MPB. The overall impact of these changes and the change in methodology for MPB results in an increase to live stand volume of 215 million  m³ and a reduction to dead stand volume of 272 million m³ for a net total volume reduction of 64 million m³ or 0.6% of the total  volume.

Adjusting the Provincial Forest Inventory to Reflect Mountain Pine Beetle Impacts, Fires and LiDAR Data Acquisition in the 2015 Annual Forest Inventory Release

The 2015 Forest Inventory release reflects a number of changes to the forest inventory to account for the large natural losses due to the mountain pine beetle (MPB) and for wildfires since 2007. It also reflects the integration of a LiDAR project on northern Vancouver Island to improve the estimates of stand height and a Landscape Vegetation Inventory in the Cariboo. Below is in-depth details of the methodology used for the adjustment made to the provincial forest cover for the 2015.  

• Changes to VEG_COMP_LYR_R1_POLY to account for mountain pine beetle losses in 2012 (PDF, 680KB) 

The provincial forest inventory is a strategic level photo estimates inventory that is maintained in an operational database in a system known as VRIMS (Vegetation Resource Inventory Management System). This operational database is updated for disturbances, projected for annual growth and subjected to a number of data quality assurance processes. Annually the data is ‘published’ from this operational database to DATA BC to be available for resource management decisions by government, industry, and the public. 

You can locate this dataset in the Historical VRI Section:  VRI Data products including historical data

The methodology used to account for  the MPB changes to the inventory for the past 5 years had been accomplished by projecting the inventory attributes, calculating volume and then depleting the projected inventory volume by the MPB predicted mortality. This methodology required a great deal of manual intervention and changes to stand structure were only reflected in  the forest tree volumes and stand density and not to the stand species composition, basal area, or other stand attributes.

• Adjusting the Provincial forest inventory to reflect mountain pine beetle impacts, fires and LiDAR data acquisition in the 2015 annual forest inventory release (PDF, 535KB) 

The provincial forest inventory contains 5.2 million polygons.  Changes to the inventory in this release include:

• The attributes of all forested polygons updated to reflect stand growth current to 2014

• The integration of approximately 390 map sheets (5 million hectares) of new VRI photo-interpretation

• The update of approximately 18,000 openings to reflect harvesting and silviculture activities (Depletions and Regeneration submissions) reported through RESULTS (including the addition of some older openings which had previously not been updated)

• The update of approximately 10,000 free-growing openings (primarily in the Merritt, Lillooet, and South Okanagan TSAs).  Free-growing updates for many additional TSAs will be included in the next release of the Veg_Comp_Lyr_R1_poly in November 2016

• The application of volume reductions to approximately 970,000 polygons (15 million hectares) to account for tree mortality due to the mountain pine beetle.

The DataBC Distribution Service offers the provincial forest cover as a configurable product allowing the user to select an area of interest based on map sheets or user defines shapes and as a prepackaged product allowing the user to download the entire province as a single file geo-database. To reduce load on the distribution service we suggest using the packaged product if you need to download a significant amount of the province. You can locate this dataset in the Historical VRI Section:  VRI data products including historical data 

A description of changes to the inventory to reflect mountain pine beetle losses and biomass estimates

• Adjusting the forest cover to reflect mountain pine beetle impacts, Fires and LiDAR data acquisition (PDF, 2.2MB) 

The error reported in April 2014 in regards to 2013 VRI Veg Comp Polygon Rank 1 Layer label has been fixed.

There are two errors in the current 2013 VRI Veg comp polygon rank 1 layer: 

1. The attribute Earliest_nonlogging_dist_type where it is populated with only one value – either a Null or IBM. The correct version will have various values

2. The error above has affected the Line_7_Activity_Hist_Symbol & Line_7B_Disturbance_History

This error is currently being fixed.

The VRI data is now available in the BC Geographic Warehouse (BCGW), in Internet mapping applications such as MapView or IMap, and from the Distribution Service. You can locate this dataset in the Historical VRI Section: VRI data products including historical data

Please let us know if you encounter any difficulties using this information or if you find any data errors or omissions.

• Changes to Veg_Comp_Lyr_r1 to account for MPB losses in 2012 (PDF. 680KB)