The issue of global climate change and an increasing interest in the reduction of fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions by using forest biomass for energy production has increased the importance of quantifying forest biomass in recent years. The official U.S. forest carbon reporting is based on the forest biomass estimates...
"This report presents a reference list of available studies on aboveground forest biomass, together with (1) methods of sampling and estimation and some of the problems and errors associated with each method (given as an aid to comparison of data), (2) some results obtained from the literature of field estimates...
Broad-scale estimates of above ground forest biomass (AGB) are typically produced by applying individual-tree equations to inventory data consisting of measurements from probabilistically or purposively selected trees. The associated uncertainty for these estimates depends primarily on three sources of error that interact and propagate: (1) measurement error, the quality of...
The importance of accurately identifying inventories of domestic energy, including forest biomass, has increasingly become a priority of the US government and its citizens as the cost of fossil fuels has risen. It is useful to identify which of these resources can be processed and transported at the lowest cost...
Recently concerns over anthropogenic carbon pollution have received increased global attention and research in forest biomass and carbon sequestration has gained momentum. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) remote sensing has in the last decade demonstrated forest measurement and biomass estimation potential. The project objective was to compare LiDAR forest biomass...
Woody biomass transportation costs and market values/costs are strongly correlated with the woody biomass moisture content. Properly managing moisture content can potentially lead to economic and environmental advantages in biomass energy markets. Good management requires accurate moisture content measurements. Therefore, availability of accurate, precise, reliable, and efficient tools to assess...
Quantifying and modeling processes involved in the global carbon cycle is important to evaluate the temporal and spatial variability of these processes and understand the effect of this variability on future response to changing climate and land use patterns. Biomass accumulation and Net Primary Productivity (NPP) are large components of...
In order to decide whether or not to develop biomass energy facilities and where to best locate them, developers and investors need accurate assessments of fuel supply. This includes information about the distribution and concentration of fuel throughout the assessment area, the quality of fuel (form, moisture content, contaminant content,...
Various methods have been used to estimate the amount of above ground forest biomass across landscapes and to create biomass maps for specific stands or pixels across ownership or project areas. Without an accurate estimation method, land managers might end up with incorrect biomass estimate maps, which could lead them...
Quantifying biomass is important for sustainable forest management. The purpose of this study is to obtain allometric relationships for seven species of shrubs common in northeastern California so that estimates of carbon and fuel loading may be better realized. Although some shrub biomass equations exist, such equations are limited in...
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Temesgen Hailemariam
Quantifying biomass is important for sustainable forest management
Growing awareness and concern within society over the use of and reliance on fossil fuels has stimulated research efforts in identifying, developing, and selecting alternative energy sources and energy technologies. Bioenergy represents a promising replacement for conventional energy, due to reduced environmental impacts and broad applicability. Sustainable energy challenges, however,...
Methods for obtaining accurate, spatially explicit estimates of biomass density in tropical forests are required to reduce uncertainties in the global carbon cycle, and to support international climate agreements and emerging carbon markets. Three-dimensional (3-D) remote sensing techniques sensitive to the vertical structure of vegetation provide a unique opportunity for...
Improved monitoring of forest biomass is needed to quantify natural and anthropogenic effects on the terrestrial carbon cycle. Landsat's temporal and spatial coverage, fine spatial grain, and long history of earth observations provide a unique opportunity for measuring biophysical properties of vegetation across large areas and long time scales. However,...
In this study an improved model of biomass and nutrient estimation of coastal Douglas-fir (Psuedotsuga menziesii) in the Pacific Northwest has been developed across a wide range of stand management regimes. This study quantifies and defines the type and intensity of biomass harvest and associated removal for actively managed stands...
A tenfold expansion of western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis spp.
occidentalis) into the sagebrush steppe has led to the degradation of the
economic and ecological potential of these landscapes. Land managers have
enacted numerous methods to reduce distributions and densities of these trees.
Assessment of above ground juniper biomass, expressed overall...
Both transportation costs and market values of woody biomass are strongly linked to the amount of moisture in the woody biomass. Therefore, managing moisture in the woody biomass well can lead to significant advantages in the woody biomass energy business. In this study, two prediction models were developed to estimate...
Tools woodland owners need to measure property acreage, boundaries, and characteristics of standing timber, including individual log volumes, are described.
Tarif numbers are essential for calculating the volume of standing timber on forest land. This publication includes comprehensive tarif numbers for six species of Oregon timber--Douglas-fir, grand fir, ponderosa pine, red alder, western hemlock, and western redcedar--and the corresponding tree volumes.
Published October 1983. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Selling timber by the tree or by the thousand board feet is a
business proposition. Both the seller and the buyer must know the
quality and the quantity of the products being sold.
Published October 1946. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Revised June 1982. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Tarif access and tree volume tables in this publication are for Douglas-fir, grand fir, ponderosa pine, red alder, western hemlock, and western redcedar. Tarif numbers range from 15 to 60, allowing you to estimate virtually any tree volume for the listed species, based on diameter at breast height (DBH) and...
Woodland owners routinely want to measure property acreage,
boundaries, ground slope, various characteristics of standing
timber, and individual log volumes. Different tools are
required for each of these tasks.
One of the most important challenges facing foresters is the
development of a raw material measurement system designed to give
a complete inventory of log volume and to assist in planning the complete
management of log production. This paper introduces a concept
of production analysis in terms of solid fiber...
This study was a test of eight basal area factors and five point
sampling cluster patterns in a computer oriented sampling study of
coastal Alaska old-growth spruce-hemlock stands. It was an attempt
to learn which basal area factor and which type of point sample cluster
pattern should be used in...
Measurement error (ME) is a component of any study involving the use of actual measurements, but is often not recognized or is ignored. The consequences of MEs on estimates of tree and stand attributes and the parameters and predictions of forest models can be varied and severe, including the presence...
This study was initiated to determine the accuracy and limits
of the height-accumulation method of measuring tree volume and
surface area for Pacific Northwest second-growth trees. Thirty
trees were selected from various thinning treatments in a 55 year
old Douglas-fir forest. Each tree was measured with the highly
accurate Barr...
Remote sensing technologies have proven useful and cost-efficient for quantifying various forest vegetation characteristics over multiple scales. However, significant limitations were encountered in each of two related experiments conducted to explore their potential to supplement or replace traditional, single-species biomass equations for estimation of ground vegetation and tree overstory on...
Wildfire exclusion over the past century or more has resulted in extensive fuel accumulations throughout much of the West that combined with recent climatic patterns have increased the frequency of relatively uncommon, large, high-severity wildfires. Forest restoration treatments intended to alter landscape-level fire disturbance patterns can be difficult to implement...
Accurate estimates of forest aboveground biomass are needed to reduce uncertainties in the terrestrial carbon flux. The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) onboard the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite is now the first spaceborne lidar sensor that will provide global estimates of vegetation height. This study investigated the utility...
Within Oregon there is considerable interest in the possibility of converting woody biomass to energy. This interest stems from three converging factors: the desire to reduce the threat of uncharacteristic wildfire by removing excess material from the forests, the possibility to stimulate rural economies that are dependent on forest products,...
The procedures outlined in this publication show you how to estimate standing volume and annual growth of timber stands—areas that are uniform in age, stand characteristics, and species. Estimates of volume and growth are helpful in planning when to harvest or how much to remove in a thinning operation. These...
This publication is a spreadsheet with accompanying instructions. It allows timber owners to compare the pricing strategies for four different mills to determine which mill specifications will return the highest possible revenue based on the dimensions of trees on the landowner’s property.
Equations are presented that predict individual-tree 5-year diameter growth, outside bark, for 14 tree species in southwest Oregon. The data used to develop the equations came from 19,245 trees sampled from 391 stands in the study area. These equations express diameter growth as a function of diameter at breast height,...
Equations and tables predicting gross total stem volumes in cubic feet are presented for Douglas-fir, grand fir, white fir, ponderosa pine, sugar pine, and incense-cedar. The data were gathered in second-growth, mixed-conifer stands of southwest Oregon. The basic equations use diameter outside bark at breast height and total tree height...
Published April 1984. A newer revision exists. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
This publication describes measurements used to buy and sell timber products. Managing woodland property offers you the opportunity to harvest a variety of products, depending on timber quality and quantity, harvest economics, and market availability. Among these products are saw logs, peeler logs, pulpwood, fuelwood, poles, piling, and posts. Knowledge...
This study was initiated and designed, first, to determine the reliability of the stocking survey system, and, second, to construct free hand curves which would give the ratio of percent of stocking to number of trees per acre.
An economic analysis and optimization of forest biomass processing and transportation at the operational level is presented. Renewable sources of energy have captured the interest of public and private institutions to develop cost-effective supply chains to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The production of energy from forest harvest residues constitutes...
This workbook is a companion to OSU Extension publication EM 9058, Measuring Your Trees. Before using this workbook, collect data following the procedures outlined in EM 9058. Then enter your data in this workbook to automatically calculate several stand volume and growth measurements and generate a printable summary report.
Three equations for predicting tree height as a function of diameter (outside
bark) at breast height are presented for six species found in coastal regions of
the Pacific Northwest. Foresters can use these “height–diameter” equations
to avoid the time-consuming task of measuring heights of all individual trees
in an inventory,...
The fixed bed drying of western hemlock and Douglas-fir biomass particles at temperatures ranging from 50°C to 200°C and air velocities from 0.3 to 0.9 m/s was investigated. The objectives were to describe the drying characteristics of the particles, fit a model for thin-layer drying, and develop and test a...
Airborne discrete-return lidar is an active remote sensing technology capable of obtaining accurate, fine-resolution three-dimensional measurements over large areas. Discrete-return lidar data produce three-dimensional object characterizations in the form of point clouds defined by precise x, y and z coordinates. The data also provide intensity values for each point that...
Land-use change in forested regions of the tropics is currently one of the largest
anthropogenic perturbations on earth; it is a force capable of altering biogeochemical cycles at local, regional, and global scales. However, significant uncertainties exist concerning the impact of land-use change on biomass and elemental pools of tropical...
Summaries from 49 published articles on site-index and dominant-height growth curves and equations are presented for 20 tree species or species groups found in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, southeastern Alaska, Idaho, and western Montana. The summaries are organized by species. Each summary describes the modeling approach, type of curves/equations,...
Summaries from 49 published articles on tree volume and taper equations are presented for 39 tree species found in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, southeast Alaska, Idaho, and western Montana. The summaries are organized by species and then by type of equation (volume or taper). Each summary describes the types...
The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the use of weights in least squares regression volume table construction and thereby to determine the importance of the assumption of homogeniety of tree volume variance. Several weighted and unweighted linear regression equations were investigated using data from 340 Douglas-fir Pseudotsuga menziesii...
This study was initiated to determine the relative efficiency
of systematic, stratified and simple random sampling for crown area
and tree frequency estimation of five of the major forest types found
in the Pacific Northwest. Several of the more common methods of
estimating spatial distribution coefficients were evaluated. Finally
the...
Net uptake of carbon from the atmosphere (net ecosystem production, NEP) is dependent on climate, disturbance history, management practices, forest age, and forest type. To improve understanding of the influence of these factors on forest carbon flux in the western U.S., a combination of federal inventory data and supplemental ground...
The development of a market for currently non-merchantable forest material, such as harvest residues of tops and limbs of trees or small diameter trees, has been suggested as a possible win-win solution that could: (i) provide a financial incentive to help motivate treatments to reduce wildfire risk or restore forest...
Aerial photo cruising that can be accomplished quickly, cheaply and with a satisfactory degree of accuracy has been the goal of many forest mensurationists throughout the world. As early as 1925, photo cruising was accomplished successfully by Professor R. Hugershoff and his associates in Germany. The development of this technique...
Largest crown width (LCW) equations for stand-grown trees were developed for 14 tree species found in western Oregon. The equations are used in the growth-and-yield model ORGANON and in the stand-visualization program VIZ4ST. They were constructed such that LCW equals the maximum crown width
of open-grown trees when the crown...
Procedures outlined in this publication show how to estimate standing volume and annual growth of individual timber stands that are relatively uniform in species, age, size, and density. Estimates of volume and growth are helpful in planning when to harvest or how much to remove in a thinning operation. These...
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the production of poplar biomass grown under four management conditions in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the U.S.A. was conducted. While the extraction of fossil fuels and the subsequent generation of energy have environmental impacts, the alternative of extracting poplar biomass also has impacts...
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have been steadily increasing from anthropogenic energy production, development and use. Carbon cycling in the terrestrial biosphere, particularly forest ecosystems, has an important role in regulating atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. US West coast forest management policies are being developed to implement forest bioenergy production while...
In this study we use a combination of data from forest inventories,
intensive chronosequences, extensive sites, and remote sensing, to make estimates
of biomass and net primary production (NPP) for the forested region of Western
Oregon. Plot-level forest inventory data were provided by the USDA Forest
Service through their Forest...
The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program conducts an annual inventory throughout the United States. In the western United States, 10% of all plots (one panel) are measured annually, and a moving average is used for estimating current condition and change of forest attributes while alternative methods are sought in...
Lodgepole pine (Pinus conorta) is a widely distributed forest type across western North America. Central Oregon lodgepole pine forests are ecologically unique when compared to other lodgepole pine ecosystems. Sierra lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta ssp. murrayana) is the dominant variety and often exists as the climax species on pumice soils,...
A soil container 12 feet in diameter and 4 feet deep was constructed around the root ball of a 92-foot Douglas-fir tree in a naturally regenerated stand. The weighing mechanism, consisting of 550 feet of
2.5-inch butyl rubber tubing filled with water connected to a standpipe,
was placed under the...
To effectively study dynamic processes like forest succession over long time periods one must effectively integrate data collected at many different times, locations and spatial scales. The purpose of this research is to integrate forest inventory data collected by the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program with...
This paper describes the concepts and operations of two programs, SLASH, which simulates forest-residue populations, and INTRSCT, which performs line intersect residue inventories on these populations. Program SLASH creates residue pieces on a 5.07 -acre square area to specified orientation and spatial distributions. The user can specify constant geometric piece...
As a preliminary step toward the establishment of a
70 mm. aerial photo timber inventory system capable of
generating accurate stand tables, stock tables, and gross
volume estimates, this project focuses on the development
of a system which (1) eliminates the need to measure tree
height on the photos through...