Timber truly is one of the most ancient industries around. We have been harvesting and utilizing wood for energy and construction for millennia, but only recently has forestry itself become an established science and practice. Like any science, measurement is key to successful timber management, but that’s where the simplicity ends. Timber measurement units are…
Whether you are a sawmill owner managing your land for sawlogs or you are interested in selling your timber and wondering how valuable a tree may be, it may be useful to know how to measure the board feet in a tree. Because board feet is a measurement of the yield of usable lumber a…
Sometimes, whether wishing to cut down a tree or take measurements for forestry work, it is necessary to measure the height of a tree. There are several methods of calculating tree height, but they almost always involve complex calculations, expensive equipment, or totally unreliable “guesstimates.” Luckily, there is a super easy way to calculate the…
In this article, we will discuss everything you need to know about how to measure basal area per acre, how to properly use an angle gauge and prism gauge, and how to design your own cruise. We will even provide a free cruise sheet that you can download by clicking the image below: What is…
If you are looking to buy timberland or are analyzing the potential return on a timber harvest, a prime question is how much wood there is on an acre of land. While there is a tremendous amount of variation, the average acre of forest land in the United States contains 15.7 cords (or 39.3 tons)…
I don’t need to tell you that trees are massive. Towering above all else, these behemoths can really pack some serious heft. In fact, by mass, trees are the largest organisms in the world. But just how much does a tree weigh? Most “average” sized full-grown trees weigh about one ton, with larger trees weighing…
If you have studied forestry or logging, looked into buying a sawmill, or sought to buy lumber in bulk, you’ve almost certainly seen the abbreviation “MBF” as a unit of measurement. MBF means “thousand board feet” and refers to the yield of board feet, in thousands, that can either be found in a quantity of…
Taking the diameter of a tree, also known as “Diameter at Breast Height” or “DBH,” is one of the most essential skills in forestry. It is at the core of properly measuring timber and wood volume (known as forest mensuration), and landowners often make important decisions about the management of their trees and forests based…
Trees per acre, also known as TPA, is one of the most important metrics for determining the timber density of a forest, particularly in softwood silviculture. Luckily, it is also one of the easiest metrics to measure. To calculate trees per acre, simply use a fixed radius plot to count trees within a given area…
Proper estimation of volume is an integral part of forest management, and when forestry is done on a small scale, it can help to look at volume on a per tree basis instead of a larger per acre basis. So how many cords of wood are in a tree? Obviously, the number varies drastically, but…