Data availability ratings ( , , or ) indicate whether there are data that are national in scope and provide historical trends (), whether there are data with either geographic limitations or a lack of historical data ("data with significant gaps" - ) or no data (). The introduction and summary of findings includes additional discussion on data availability.

Definition or agreement ratings (, or ) indicate whether project participants believe the measure is clearly defined or whether additional concept development is needed. In addition, there were some cases in which project participants did not reach agreement on a specific measure. Measures requiring additional conceptual development or which are the subject of disagreement are marked with a ; others with a .

The final rating ( or ) indicates whether a measure has a societally-recognized threshold against which a measure may be compared. The only such measure for croplands is nitrate in streams, for which there are drinking water standards. Most measures have no such reference point, and are marked with a zero ().

	Property	Measures	Data Availability	Data Quality	Societal Threshold
System Dimensions	Extent	Forest types, nationally and by region
		Public and private ownership of forests
	Landscape Patterns	Forests intermingled with low-density housing
		Number and area of forest patches of different size
	Management & Stewardship	Strict protection and other management of public forest lands
		Reasons for owning private lands
		Voluntary private conservation programs
Human Use	Timber Harvest & Wood Use	Amount of timber harvested and its use for different products
		Timber harvest by region
		Harvest on public versus private lands
		Per-capita consumption of wood
		Recycling rate and industrial efficiency
	Recreation & Water	Recreational visitation on forest lands
		Access to forest land for recreation
		Effects of recreation on forests
		Proportion of public water supply areas that are forested
		Proportion of stream banks in public water supply areas that are forested
Ecosystem Condition Key to data and measure descriptions = data with national coverage and time series = data with significant gaps or limitations = no data = clearly defined measure = measure requiring additional clarification = measure with legal, regulatory, or other threshold = measure with no legal, regulatory, or other threshold	Productivity	Timber inventory, harvest, and growth
		Harvest and growth by region
		Trends in net growth among different owners
		Satellite measurements of overall productivity
		Changes in carbon storage
	Physical Conditions	See Nutrients
	Nutrients	Nitrogen in forest streams
		Soil properties
	Chemical Contaminants	Ozone damage to sensitive plants
	Biological Community Condition	Status of forest types
		Tree size
		Extent of old growth
		Forest mortality
		Acreage burned in forest fires
	Native Species	Population trends for:
		Forest Carnivores
		Raptors
		Birds that prefer mature forests
		Forest-edge birds
		Deer
	Biological Invasions, Outbreaks and Disease	Nonnative plants
		Native and nonnative insects insect activity
		Newly introduced insects and disease