Operational small-area estimation for forest inventory: cost, precision, and standing-value decision-support package

A comparison of operational forest-inventory workflows that combine freely available remote sensing (USGS 3DEP LiDAR, GEDI, Meta CHMv2, Sentinel) with strategically placed ground plots and small-area estimation (SAE), evaluated on the tradeoff between cost and precision at the stand and property scales, and ultimately for standing value. The package includes a synthesis memo, a presentation deck, an interactive cost/precision/standing-value calculator, all figures, the derived analysis tables behind them, and the analysis code (R, Python, JavaScript). Developed for the USDA NIFA PERSEUS project at the Howland Research Forest and Penobscot Experimental Forest, with operational framing in collaboration with Green Diamond Resource Company and generalization to its CONUS footprint (Pacific Northwest Douglas-fir, Southeast loblolly pine, California redwood, Montana softwoods). This is a methods-and-decision-support deposit, not a primary field dataset. Proprietary inputs (e.g., TimberMart-South prices) and large raw datasets are excluded; only derived results are shared. See PROVENANCE_and_restrictions.md. Documents, figures, and data are CC-BY-4.0; code is MIT (see LICENSE.md).