' 7- Li 



JuSDA FOREST SERVICE RESEARCH NOTE NE-212 



1975 



Lxperimen 



FOREST SERVICE, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE, 6816 MARKET STREET, UPPER DARBY, PA. 19082 



REST: A COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR ESTIMATING 



LOGGING RESIDUE BY USING THE LINE-INTERSECT METHOD 



by A. JEFF MARTIN 



Associate Market Analyst 

 Forest Products Marketing Laboratory 

 Princeton, Va. 



Abstract. — A computer program was designed to accept log- 

 ging-residue measurements obtained by line-intersect sampling 

 and transform them into summaries useful for the land man- 

 ager. The features of the program, along with inputs and out- 

 puts, are briefly described, with a note on machine compatibility. 



KEYWORDS: Logging residue, computer program. 



The forester and the land manager who 

 are concerned with improving the utilization 

 of wood fiber produced by a forest want to 

 know how much is left behind after a logger 

 has harvested a forest stand. One way to 

 estimate logging residues is by means of the 

 line-intersect method. 



Logging residues include the unwanted, 

 generally unutilized woody material in the 

 forest that originates from the activities of 

 timber harvesting. Of course the line-inter- 

 sect method can also be used for other forest 

 residues, such as those resulting from natural 

 processes or other activities of man. 



The line-intersect method for sampling log- 

 ging residues is well documented (Bailey 



1970a, 1970b, Bailey and Lefebure 1971; 

 Howard and Ward 1972; Van Wagner 1968; 

 and Warren and Olsen 196 Jt). Briefly, the 

 method requires that a sample line be estab- 

 lished on the cutover area and that the diam- 

 eters of all logging residues that cross the 

 line are measured at the point of intersection. 



Sample lines may be continuous or seg- 

 mented, and they may be oriented either 

 systematically (using a grid network) or 

 randomly. Volume in cubic feet per acre is 

 estimated by using a very simple foniiula 

 after diameters have been converted into 

 cross-sectional areas. Weight may also be 

 estimated if specific gravity is known. If 

 desired, information about lengths, end diam- 



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