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Page 1 of 34 Forestry Measurement Techniques Measuring, Quantifying Forestry Measurement Techniques Measuring, quantifying, and displaying forestry data. Reference for: WILD2400, WILD3850, WILD4750, WILD5700 (updated September 2019) Measuring trees to characterize stands or forests has its own unique set of tools and techniques. Because trees do not necessarily scale to forests to landscapes, etc., there are important considerations to make to accurately characterize trees and stands in the field. Generally, the data we collect have little meaning in and of themselves, they need to be tabulated, or displayed graphical to portray their meaning. These data are important if we want to make important silvicultural consideration with respect to characterizing, and/or treating the stand. This may be to portray wildlife habitat, quantify current volume, or to enhance future growth, among other things. This handout is a review of some essential measurement and quantification skills requisite for forestry, and really any natural resource professional tasked with characterizing trees and forests. We will define some basic concepts, show you how to make some simple tree- and stand-level measurements. Then we will show you how to use the data collected for quantitative assessment of: stand stocking, determining site index (site quality), stand density, species composition, and diameter/age distributions. I anticipate that you would keep this handout for future reference during your curriculum at USU, and that it might be a helpful reference in your future. Tree Measurements (direct) Crown Base (CB): Height to the base of live branches. Used to calculate live crown ratio (LCR). Typically measured with a Biltmore stick, clinometer, or hypsometer. Diameter at breast height (DBH): where breast height is 4.5 feet (or 1.3 m) off the ground. This international standard is important if one is going to use allometric equations for the subsequent prediction of other attributes (tree volume, biomass, or carbon being the most common). Tools used can be a diameter tape, caliper, or a Biltmore stick. Height (HT): The total height of the tree typically measured with a Biltmore stick, clinometer, hypsometer, or laser. Depending on the tool you may need to know your pace, or use a tape or a range-finder for linear distance. Age (years): The age of the tree typically determined at breast height as a standard. An increment bore is used to extract a core on which annual rings can be counted in the field for a quick assessment. Page 1 of 34 Useful Definitions and Concepts Concept of a Stand: In forestry, the most common delineation of a group of trees is called a stand, and is the typical scale at which vegetation is characterized. The stand is a useful way to think of a group of trees greater than an individual, but not so large that it contains too much heterogeneity (such as the entirety of Figure 1). Stands can range in size from ~ 1-10+ acres, and are identified silviculturally as having trees of a similar age class, composition, or structure. You can see in the image below the colored polygons have been drawn around some lodgepole pine stands that are similar in age, having been regenerated in the mid-1970s. The surrounding matrix with courser texture is lodgepole pine that regenerated after an 1840s fire. The green polygon to the right is composed mostly of aspen. Figure 1. Air photo of a portion of the T.W. Daniel Experimental Forest showing different age classes, indicated by different spectral/textural signatures. Allometry: The proportional relationship between various measurements of organisms. Practically speaking it allows us to measure things easily (e.g., DBH, and HT), and predict things that are more difficult to directly measure (tree volume). Allometry is common in all sciences, not just forestry. Basal area (BA): The cross-sectional area (typically outside bark) of the tree at breast height, or the height where diameter is measured. Stand basal area is the total cross-sectional area of all trees measured at 4.5 feet above the ground, and is estimated from plot/point data. Page 2 of 34 Cohort: A group of similarly aged trees in a given stand. Typically arising as a result of a previous harvest of natural disturbance. Composition (stand): The make-up of the stand, typically defined in terms of the number and/or quantity of different species. Crown length (CL): Length of the live crown. Typically measured at the same time as HT. Deciding on what constitutes the lower crown (i.e., structure of live branches) is subject to opinion. Live crown ratio (LCR): Ratio of the live crown length to the total height of the tree. Diameter cut-off, or break-point diameter: A predetermined value to indicate the overstory trees from the understory trees, commonly 5 inches. The cut-off differentiates the type of plot used to measure trees of different sizes. Plot radius factor (PRF): The wedge prism-specific factor, associated with the angle of the prism. Needed to calculate the limiting distance. Quadratic mean diameter (QMD, Dq): The diameter of the tree with average basal area, not to be confused with average or mean DBH. QMD is a geometric average, appropriate because the characterization of basal area over space (i.e., the plot) is inherently a two-dimensional metric. Stand density index (SDI): A measure of stand stocking that simultaneously considers number of trees and average tree size (DBH). Important for characterizing relative density. Structure (stand): The make-up of a stand in terms of QMD, BA, HT, canopy or other metrics. Trees per acre (TPA): The number of trees, typically in the overstory (defined by the diameter cut-off), on a given unit area. A measure of absolute density. Volume: The amount of board-foot or cubic meter of wood in a given section of the tree, typically defined as stump height to some top diameter (e.g., 5 inches). Rarely measured directly, most often predicted via allometric equations. The same is true for estimations of biomass and carbon. Plot Sampling Why do we measure trees on plots? Because the space a tree occupies is related to its size, history of stand development, and the density of the stand in which it occurs. Measurements of trees in-and-of-themselves are useless for describing the stand or forest. Assessment of multiple trees over a given area (i.e., a plot) is necessary to appropriately characterize any forest or plant population. Typical characterizations of forest structure and composition are called density and stocking, and require the forester to estimate both the number of trees per acre and the stand basal area per acre. There is no “magic” sampling method that allows one to determine both basal area and trees per acre quickly and efficiently in the field. As a result, there are various types of plots we can deploy that will allow us to measure a relatively small number of trees and Page 3 of 34 then ‘blow-up’ or expand that number to a per area basis (e.g., per acre). These are called expansion factors or blow-up factors. Plots are deployed within a given stand based on a sample design and desired level of accuracy and precision. These concepts are not covered here, but will be an integral part of your natural resource education. Fixed-radius plot sampling Fixed-radius (e.g., one-fifth acre in area) plots make it easy to determine trees per acre – you just count the trees on the plot and multiply by the inverse of the plot size (the expansion factor, which is 5 in this case). Determining basal area on fixed-radius plots is more difficult, however, because it requires the forester to measure individual diameters for all trees on the plot, compute the basal area of each tree using the formula for the area of a circle, add them up for the entire plot, and multiplying by the expansion factor. Because fixed-radius plots require the measurement of all trees of a given size, they can take more time. There are a number of good reasons to use fixed-radius plots, but saving time usually is not one of them. For long-term monitoring, that is, if you will be revisiting and re-measuring the same plot, fixed-radius plots are ideal. In the case of re-measurement, all the overstory trees on a fixed-area plot are typically ‘tagged’ with an aluminum tag, either at breast height or at the base, using an aluminum nail that hangs down from the tree. When fixed-radius plots are ‘mapped’ the distance and azimuth from the plot center, or some other fixed point, is measured to each tree. Regeneration/Stocking sampling As mentioned above, a diameter cut-off is typically employed to reduce sampling effort for smaller trees. That means the size of the fixed-area plot for seedlings and/or saplings will be smaller. A common understory vegetation fixed-area plot is a 1/300th acre plot. That is a circle of 6.8 feet in radius. On this smaller plot trees are commonly tallied by species. A dot tally is sufficient here. Further delineation by height classes, measurement of diameter at root collar, etc. could also be done on the plot. The position of this plot is commonly at the center of the overstory plot, but can be offset. A quick deployment of this type of plot can be done in recently cut or disturbed area to assess regeneration stocking. Stocking is typically some threshold of desired regeneration. Therefore, in addition to tallying the trees by species on a plot, multiple plots are employed in a sampling design, and the percentage of those plots with some predetermined number of the desired species on them is divided by the total number of plots.
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