Comparison of some annual forest inventory estimators

Three estimators of current status and trend are compared for an annual interpenetrating panel design. The five-panel annual inventory design is simulated over a 10-year period with flat, increasing, and quadratic growth trends. The simulated comparisons show that the mixed estimator performs well relative to the 5-year moving average in terms of bias and mean squared error in all cases. The one-panel mean can have less bias than the moving average when there is a trend, but it is more variable. The moving average tends to lag evolving trends, which can result in very large bias.