Using woody biomass from public lands could attract private investments, increase carbon dioxide emission reductions from sustainably harvested low-grade wood to mitigate climate change, provide benefits for the environment, and support rural community economies. Available for use are about 210 million oven dry tons (in the western U.S. alone) of small-diameter wood and harvest residues that could be removed through hazard-fuel treatments and used for bioenergy and bioproducts; representing an economic value of approximately USD 5.97 billion (10⁹). Reaching that utilization goal requires an assessment of current U.S. policies, regulations and directives influencing the use of forest biomass and identification of barriers, challenges, and potential opportunities associated with the use of woody biomass from public lands. One objective of this review is to support the implementation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (USDA-FS) new effort called “Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests”, but greater coordination of public policies (regulatory legislation, government subsidies, support programs) at different government levels could increase adoption of forest biomass for bioenergy and bioproducts while also promoting different supply chains for long-term biomass supplies and industry investments. Harmonizing the definition of key biomass terms used by different programs that support using forest biomass for bioenergy and other bioproducts, including the Renewable Fuel Standard, may increase forest biomass use from public lands.

Understanding the extent and timing of forest disturbances and their impacts is critical to formulating effective management and policy responses. Broad-scale inventory programs provide key estimates of forest parameters that indicate the extent and severity of disturbance impacts. Here, we review the use of a post-stratified estimator in a panelized design, in the context of disturbance observations that are collected retrospectively. We further develop a sample weight adjustment that is requisite for proper estimation of the extent and timing of disturbances. Using populations from areas of Arkansas, California, and Maine in the US, the weight adjustment technique was tested in a Monte Carlo simulation. We found that the estimated area of disturbance using the weight adjustment technique had satisfactory agreement with the true population values and performed considerably better than the conventional post-stratified estimation approach. The proliferation of panelized forest inventory designs globally suggests that accurate estimates of areal extent and timing of disturbances will often require that weighting adjustment techniques be employed in the estimation process.