INTRODUCTION 



The scope of forest inventory data--its detail to support analysis of complex 

 silvicultural alternatives, its relevance to nontimber uses of the forest, and its 

 utility in the everyday task of implementing management plans --is changing rapidly as 

 increasing demands for forest benefits open new options to the forest manager. The 

 inventory design described in this report is one of several attempts to improve the 

 data framework for effective timber management. 



Specifically, we have attempted to improve the utility of the inventory for 

 evaluating alternative land uses and management practices in these respects: 



1. Describe conditions on tracts of land that are the real units of forest 

 land management. These tracts must be small enough that analysis of the data can 

 direct the manager's attention to specific portions of his forest for more intensive 

 program planning. On the other hand, the tracts must have adequate detail over an 

 area large enough to encompass those adjacent land, vegetation, and use conditions 

 that modify or influence our management of the tract. This is our concept of the 

 term "in place" inventory data. 



2. Provide an inventory base that can support frequent revisions of plans to show 

 changes wrought by land management activities, and to accommodate the changing multiple 

 use status of the various tracts that results from increased knowledge of and insight 

 into values and needs for all forest resources. 



Our objective in this report is to record a procedure we have devised that 

 incorporates these improvements and to present some of our reasons for selecting this 

 approach from the numerous design alternatives that were considered. 



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