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The term NED describes a set of computer programs intended to help resource managers and landowners develop goals, assess current and potential conditions, and produce sustainable management plans for forest properties. NED-l helps analyze forest inventory data from the perspective of various forest resources for management areas up to several thousand acres. The electronic data collection program NEDDC interfaces directly with NED-1 to facilitate use of field data recorders. Programs such as the Forest Stewardship Planning Guide and NEWILD allow people with an interest in managing their forests but lacking,detailed data to improve their understanding of various management activities and their effects on the forest. StewPlan, the latest release, is a form-generating program that helps prepare stewardship plans that meet the requirements of the USDA Forest Service Stewardship program. The resources NED addresses include visual quality, ecology, forest health, timber, water, and wildlife, allowing a user to evaluate the degree to which individual stands or a management unit as a whole may provide the conditions required to accomplish specific goals. Users can select from a variety of reports including tabular data summaries, general narrative reports, and goal-specific analyses. An extensive hypertext system provides information on resource goals, the desired conditions that support achieving those goals, and related data used to analyze the actual condition of the forest, as well as detailed information about the program itself and the rules and formulas used to produce the analyses. Further development, currently known as NED-2, will enhance that capability of the software to incorporate cutting treatments and simulate development of forests through time and allow data collection with inexpensive handheld computers. The programs are being developed by the USDA Forest Service's Northeastern and Southern Research Stations in cooperation with many other organizations and individuals.
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