If you’ve ever wondered how foresters establish the amount of marketable timber in a forest, or how to determine the approximate height of a tree, Isabella Conservation District Environmental Education Coordinator Mike LeValley was happy to demonstrate last Saturday at Sylvan Solace Preserve. He talked about how foresters evaluate and inventory a forest stand by separating trees to species and diameter, then height. Using a special “yardstick” type tool called a Biltmore Stick, it is possible to realistically measure tree diameter and height. This allows one to calculate how many marketable logs are present in a forest.
Even if one is not interested in actually logging a particular patch of forest, it is an interesting exercise to see it through the eyes of a forester. It is no simple task to conduct a fixed-radius inventory of an area, separate trees to species and diameter, then gauge height to come up with an accurate estimate of how much timber is present. But a Biltmore stick makes the job much easier.
Join us for another walk with Mike on April 9th, when he talks about Reading the Land.
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- Sylvan Solace Preserve is a nice place to practice our timber cruising skills
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- Much can be learned about the forest by use of a simple Biltmore Stick
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- A Biltmore Stick, a diameter tape and instructions on how to inventory a forest. We’re ready to give it a try.
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- You may not want to log a forest, but it’s always interesting to get an idea of the actual height of a tree.
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- Is it possible for two people to come up with different measurements about tree volume? Yes – but the results are actually quite close.
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- Mike demonstrates the proper height to measure the diameter of a tree with the Biltmore Stick
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- Another example of the proper way to measure diameter
