Introduction

Abstract

The measurement of trees and forests is fundamental to the practice of forestry and forest science throughout the world. Measurements are used to understand how forests grow and develop, to determine how much they contain of the products man wants from them and to ensure that they are managed appropriately. This book introduces the techniques of tree and forest measurement (or mensuration as it is called in forestry). It covers little more than what might be taught in one semester of an undergraduate forestry course. It should be useful for students and practising foresters as well as for private landholders, who own forest and wish either to measure it or understand what professionals are doing when they measure it for them. The book is designed also to assist scientists, from other than forestry disciplines, who work in forests and need to measure them, although their interests are not necessarily in the trees themselves. It should assist them to take measurements which are consistent with, and comparable to, those which forest scientists have accumulated over many years.