Joe Zorzin wrote:

"mhagen" wrote in message
...

This is good content - not theoretical at all. In the PNW, this is how
we cruise. Yes, a forester had better know what his findings mean in
the "real world" of non-mensurationists, on the other hand, he had
better be able to explain his procedures professionally too. If photo
cruises can do that for you back east, fine. That's not done often here,
except for cursory overviews. Partly that's because of the way we sell
timber - we have a lot of cash sales rather than stumpage sales and
values had better be nailed down to a few percent.



Oh, you're talking about a cruise for a timber sale? I thought the
discussion was cruising for mgt. plans. Certainly for a timber sale- you
need very good information. Here, only timber beasts cruise for a timber
sale, before they rip off the owner. Any reputable forester will mark and
tally each and every tree- a 100% tally. However, not even doing a 100%
tally, here, will give anyone accuracy to a few percent- since the trees are
difficult to accurately measure. Most hardwoods have irregular shapes,
forking- defects of all kinds, etc. so it becomes as much art as science.
What really counts is consistancy. The wood buyers keep a good record of the
results they get from each forester- so if I'm consistantly over by 15% on
some species and 5% on another- they know it- and they bid accordingly-
which makes everyone happy. Consistancy is the key. I suppose since you work
with mostly conifers which are more likely to be straight and round and not
forked- if you're carefull you should get much better accuracy- but with any
sort of a cruise that's not 100% I doubt anyone can get within a few
percent.

Conifers are pretty variable too, though the variability lies more in
defect and breakage than in tree form, though that can be wild too.
There's a world of difference between the difficulty of cruising an old
growth cedar stand and a second growth fir stand. Log buyers act the
same way here too. They definitely keep score sheets on cruisers and
compare notes at auctions. The one's who stay in business are pretty
sharp and do not miss a trick. I've gotten involved in discussions
after auctions where several cruises on the same sale were compared -
ones which arrived at the same volume but lower CV and more sample
points - higher costs, vs ones with less points but high CV and some
complete misses on sort breakdown, but lower costs. And perhaps only a
few sorts are really wanted by that particular buyer, they can turn
around and sell the others to someone else. Throw in cruiser windage and
you've got a challenge for the buyer.

No stress here, eh?