Measuring the Forests

Everyone knows that we get many products from the forest. Many people also know that timber harvesting can provide income for forest landowners. Few people, however, give much thought to how we know how much of a particular product is in a stand of trees before they are cut. The only way to know that is to measure the forest. But how do you measure a forest? That is the subject of this page.

Traditionally, standing trees were measured for their contents of lumber. Their lumber potential was expressed in a measure of volume called “Board Feet”. More recently, trees are being bought and sold by weight in tons. The weight measure lends itself to large-volume and speedy handling. But other products from the forest are measured differently such as bales of pine straw and maple syrup by the gallon.

Part of the forest measurement problem lies in the vast size of forests. How do you estimate how much potential lumber value is in a large tract of land? One hundred acres can be measured (or “cruised”) in a few days but what about 100,000 acres? Remote sensing is used often today to estimate the volume and value of such large tracts of forest.

Explore the problems of measuring the forest by looking at the following links.

Web Links:

Marketing Your Timber: The Products

Measuring Standing Sawtimber

Marketing Your Timber: The Basics of Weight Scaling

Tree and Forest Measurement

Measuring and Analyzing Forests and Renewable Resources