The relatively recent development of digital forest inventories that sometimes span continents has empowered the exploration of novel ecological themes. The proposed session will highlight the many facets of the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) database and resulting impacts to field of modern ecology. The session will provide a venue to showcase how this vast database contains valuable ecological information that will advance our understanding of macroecology, forest dynamics and our ability to predict the future of forests in the US. The proposed session will begin with (1) a synthesis of what the FIA database is and is not. This will be followed by (2) contributions on advancement of basic ecological science derived from the FIA data, which set the stage for (3) investigations of how the FIA will help us in the future to achieve conservation and management goals. This will include discussion of changes in tree ranges, climate scenarios, and integrated modeling of forest development. Current case studies are included to highlight these topics, and to offer insights on the ecological and conservation importance forests.