Cruiser's Choice

The last few weeks have been very busy around our company. So busy, in fact, that, after landing a couple larger forest inventory jobs with short fuses, I got recruited to help with the field work. I haven't done much timber cruising in the past couple years, so I dusted off my cruising vest, located my chaps and boots, and loaded up my tote full of field necessities for a couple weeks of fun in the sun. Where's an urban tree inventory when you really need one?

Big project cruises build camaraderie among the ranks when six or eight of us guys head out of town together to spend several days in the woods. Every night in the restaurant brings new "war stories" of conditions or critters encountered that day. So-and-so got his truck stuck. Someone else stepped on a cottonmouth. The titi was so thick that ... well, you get the picture. Long-time employees impart "valuable" information to the new kids so as to help them cope with the next day of busting bushes. In short, we all build respect for one another as we share the same good and bad experiences that are part of working in forestry.

I knew my first day in the field was going to be "special" when, upon opening the door of my truck near my first plot line, I'm greeted by a wall of white titi, a ditch full of water, and a cloud of mosquitoes. To quote on of our elder foresters, "Where the managed forest ends, our job begins." True dat.

I was reminded sometime during the second day just how mind-numbingly boring forest inventory data collection can be in southern pine plantations. Acre after acre of planted pine with varying degrees of understory density where every eight inch diameter tree looks like every other eight inch diameter tree. Oops - wait - there's a ten inch tree ... I start to look for little things to break the monotony - like a small patch of wildflowers, or a deer rub, or even the delicate fragrance of palmetto in bloom. I also like to find a picturesque spot for my "lunch plot" like this one on the river.

So as I spun my prism for the umpteenth time, I wondered what other foresters think about while cruising timber. Are we all too busy concentrating on counting paces between plots and getting our tree count correct while on-plot to think about anything except how that shower will feel at the end of the day? OK, "where are we going for dinner" is an important thought ...

I thought about Dr. Walter Bitterlich, who invented the Basal Area Sampling method we lovingly refer to as prism cruising or variable radius plot sampling (Winkelzählprobe to Herr Bitterlich). I read recently that Dr. Bitterlich had passed away earlier this year at the age of 99. His "plotless sampling" theory, published in 1957, still lives today. Timber inventory in German forests must be much easier so as to allow the mind to wander and wonder about weightier issues ... like "How can I get out of doing a 1/10th acre plot?"

Anyway, I created a short survey in an effort to poll other foresters in the southern United States on their opinions about timber cruising conditions and methods. Click the link below and have fun.

Click Here to take survey on Southern Timber Cruising