• University of Montana, Missoula. June 1965, Forest Management BS
• Oregon State University. Corvallis. June 1968, Forest Mensuration MS
• Oregon State University. Corvallis. January 1972, Forest Biometrics Ph.D.

Owner:

Forest Biometrics, LLC
53 Trestle Creek Drive
Saint Regis, MT 59866
406-649-0040

Co-Founder:

Forest Biometrics Research Institute
435 NW Fifth Street, Suite D
Corvallis, OR 97330
541-754-1200

Dr. Arney has thirty-six years of experience in research, technical development, consulting, management and teaching of forest biometrics principals and procedures. Dr. Arney has acquired very extensive experience in inventory design, growth model development, computer simulation techniques, harvest scheduling systems and spatial analysis. This experience was gained through a wide range of organizational structures, professional team structures and computer hardware and software systems. Six years as a partner in a large Northwest consulting firm. Experience as manager of a leading industrial forestry research team involving supervision, budgeting, technical planning and review. Designed and developed in-place inventory systems for multi-resource management including planimetric, topographic, soil and forest structure detail in updateable, computer-based systems. Experience developing strategy, plans and organizational structure with respect to computer services for a large international Canadian forestry consulting firm.

Over 200 forestry organizations world-wide use software, inventory systems, growth models and harvest planning systems developed by Dr. Arney. These organizations represent over 10 million acres in the western United States and western Canada. Dr. Arney has hosted or co-hosted over forty workshops on inventory design and forest planning over the past twenty years.

Dr. Arney was hired by Weyerhaeuser Company in 1973 to develop new yield projections for managed stands of Douglas-fir. All within Company data and resources were made available to this project. The project was co-sponsored by the USFS PNW Experiment Station and Weyerhaeuser Company. Dr. Robert O. Curtis and Dr. James D. Arney were named co-leaders in designing and developing this new growth and yield system. They solicited for and gained cooperation and permanent research plot databases from fourteen agencies and companies throughout Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. It was the single largest analysis of growth and yield ever initiated in the West. The Stand Projection System (SPS) and DFSIM growth models resulted from this project.

In 1985, Dr. Arney established Applied Biometrics in Spokane, Washington, providing consulting services, software development and support. The Stand Projection System (SPS) and the Stand Inventory System (SIS) were distributed through Applied Biometrics. Mason, Bruce & Girard later acquired them in 1992 while Dr. Arney was a partner in that firm. Dr. Arney last updated the SPS software in 1994.

Dr. Arney went on to establish Forest Biometrics [ ¹ ], a sole proprietorship, in 1995 to develop, distribute and support the Forest Projection and Planning System (FPS). FPS continues expanding to provide a broad decision-support base for all types of silviculture, regeneration, species composition, spatial modeling (GIS and visualizations), economics and long-range planning. These functions are provided in up-to-date Microsoft Windows functionality, menus and database structures.

In 2002, Dr. Arney with cooperation of Dr. Kelsey S. Milner, Champion Professor of Forestry and Dean Dr. Perry Brown of the University of Montana College of Forestry and Conservation established the Forest Biometrics Research Institute. The objective is to carry on the technical service, support and research developed by Dr. Arney over the past thirty-five years. By year-end 2004 the Institute was supporting twenty-five forest industry companies in their entire forest inventory and planning activities representing over 3.5 million acres in six western States. Dr. Arney provides technical assistance and review to approximately an additional 2.5 million acres of corporate forestry organizations annually.

Dr. Arney has been principal investigator or co-investigator in a large number of major regional inventory, growth & yield, and planning projects in the past twenty-five years. These include:

• 1973-75 joint USDA Forest Service / Weyerhaeuser Coastal Douglas-fir Yield Study;
• 1984-1985 Pacific Northwest Western Hemlock Yield Study;
• 1986-1987 Inland Northwest Growth & Yield Study;

The 1995-96 Western Oregon Calibration Project including sixteen agencies:

• Cavenham Forest Products
• Lone Rock Timber Company
• Roseburg Forest Products
• Weyerhaeuser Company
• Willamette Industries
• Starker Forests
  
• South Coast Lumber
• Simpson Timber Company
  
• Boise Cascade Corp.
• Oregon State University
  
• USDI – BLM
• USDA – PNW Experiment Sta.
  
• Northwest Tree Improvement Coop.
• Coos County Forestry
  
• Oregon Department of Forestry
• Douglas County Forestry

The 1996-97 Western Washington Calibration Project including fourteen agencies:

• Quinault Tribal Forestry
• Murray Pacific Corp.
  
• Pope Resources
• Weyerhaeuser Company
  
• Green Crow Enterprises
• Merrill & Ring Tree Farms
  
• Port Blakely Tree Farms
• Crown Pacific Corporation
  
• Plum Creek Timber
• Simpson Timber Company
  
• Olympic Resource Mgmt.
• Washington Dept. Natural Resources
  
• USDA – PNW Experiment Sta.
• Seattle City Watershed

The 1997-98 Inland Northwest Calibration Project including seventeen agencies:

• Boise Cascade Corporation
• Potlatch Corporation
  
• Riley Creek Timber Company
• Plum Creek Timber Company
  
• Crown Pacific Corporation
• U.S. Timberlands, Inc.
  
• Warm Springs Tribal Forestry
• Yakama Tribal Forestry
  
• Colville Tribal Forestry
• Spokane Tribal Forestry
  
• Coeur d’Alene Tribal Forestry
• Nez Perce Tribal Forestry
  
• Flathead Tribal Forestry
• Idaho Department of Lands
  
• Montana Forestry Department
• Washington Dept. Natural Resources
  
• Hood River County Forestry

In 1990-1991 Dr. Arney developed and established a stand-based inventory system and forest planning system for the City of Seattle 90,000 acre Cedar River Watershed. He developed entire inventory database, timber cruises, non-timber vegetation survey, dead-n-down and snag summaries. Incorporated database linkages to in-place geographic information system for soils, topography, elevation and climate parameters. Generated alternative sustained yield alternatives depending on clearcut, seed tree, shelterwood or selection harvests given varying assumptions and constraints due to wildlife, water quality and soil stability.

In 1991-1992 Dr. Arney developed and established a new stand-based inventory system for 1,300,000 acres of Plum Creek lands in Washington, Idaho and Montana.

In 1995 Dr. Arney conducted a sustained yield analysis of the Weyerhaeuser Klamath Tree Farm for evaluation to purchase. Sustained yield scenarios were produced for alternative management strategies over the next ten decades after extracting wildlife corridors, watershed buffers and road right-of-ways. An approximate $300 million land exchange depends on the reliability of these sustained yield projections. Database contained 12,000 stands with over 60 attributes per stand.

Designed and installed a stand-based forest inventory for the Quinault Indian Tribe. Designed and installed complete in-place forest inventory linked to in-place GIS database. Developed alternative sustained yields given varying stream buffers, wetland classifications and ownership patterns within the reservation lands.

Sustained yield analysis for the Montana Department of Natural Resources. The 54th Montana Legislature passed a law stating, “The department, under direction of the board, shall commission a study by a qualified independent third party to determine, using scientific principles, the annual sustained yield on forested state lands.” The annual sustained yield is “the quantity of timber that can be harvested from forested state lands each year in accordance with all applicable state and federal laws, including but not limited to the laws pertaining to wildlife, recreation, and maintenance of watersheds, and in compliance with water quality provisions of Title 75, Chapter 5, taking into account the ability of state forests to generate replacement tree growth.”

Sustained yield analysis for the 90,000 acres 0f Trust Lands in Clallam County applying all Washington State regulations and a broad range of silvicultural regimes to establish volume and value flows under various assumptions of habitat management.

Stand-based inventory design and implementation for 700,000 acres of TimberWest lands in coastal British Columbia.

Stand-based inventory design and implementation for 300,000 acres of Sealaska Native Indian lands in Southeast Alaska.

Sustained yield analysis for all fee-ownership Tree Farms of Boise Cascade Corporation under a broad array of silvicultural regimes and environmental constraints. Total land base included five Tree Farms and 1,300,000 acres.

Sustained yield analysis for all fee-ownership Tree Farms of Crown Pacific Corporation under a broad array of silvicultural regimes, State regulations and habitat constraints.

Stand-based inventory design and implementation for all Louisiana forest lands in North Idaho.

Stand-based inventory design, implementation and sustained yield analysis for Gualala Redwoods in Northern California assuming all State regulations and environmental constraints.

Sustained yield analysis evaluating alternative silvicultural regimes for Swanson Superior Resource Company in Southern Oregon.

Evaluation and calibration of silvicultural treatment response for Potlatch Corporation lands in Northern Idaho in support for long-term forest planning analyses.

Dr. Arney through Forest Biometrics and the Forest Biometrics Research Institute has assisted a growing number of forestland managers in validating, calibrating and building localized species-specific parameter libraries (FPS Species Libraries) for individual tree farms, reservations and ownerships. These have been refinements of the FPS Libraries developed in 1995-2004.

Forest Biometrics LLC will remain in place to provide direct access to Dr. Arney for biometrics analyses and review. However, most databases, software and workshop materials will continue to transfer to the Forest Biometrics Research Institute for ongoing development and application. It is Dr. Arney's intention that Forest Biometrics LLC will eventually be completely replaced by research, development and services of the FBRI.

[ ¹ ] Forest Biometrics, LLC was established in January 1995 in Gresham, Oregon. The owner and developer of all software and databases is Dr. James D. Arney. The company was formerly known as Applied Biometrics from 1985 to 1988, wherein Dr. Arney developed and distributed his earlier software, the Stand Projection System (SPS) and Stand Inventory System (SIS). Mason, Bruce & Girard, Inc now owns both SPS and SIS. Forest Biometrics moved to St. Regis, Montana in May 2000 to develop working relationships with the University of Montana.