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Into the Woods ...Chapter 3

Working in the Box

In the box

We have given up on optimization and now think that foresters have always worked "in the box." By this we mean within a set of constraints. These constraints are like walls or sides of a box. You live in the box; good is inside; illegal, impractical, and excessively costly is outside. The box may not be exactly right. The forester lives in a space more like a diamond with many facets, each facet being a constraint surface.

Silviculture, unlike its name base, no longer deals only with timber but with wildlands. Tradition aside, some claim that it deals with all the tree-covered land resources, a drastic over-extension of a field already too large for mastery. Maybe it deals only with controlling the establishment, growth, composition and quality of forest vegetation. (I doubt it or that if agreement can be gained.)

Cants

Cants are logs of various lengths with the four bark faces removed. They are squared-up; they are beams. To get the dimensions of a cant that can be produced from a log, take the circumference at the smaller end and divide by 4.44, a number derived by the ancients.

Where pecan, I cant.

The 3,4,5 Rule

To square a corner (a building, a forest plot, a recreational playing field, ...any corner) use the 3,4,5 rule.

Measure the 2 sides as 3 and 4 units each. Then shift them apart, spread them so that 5 units fit, forming a perfect right triangle. Use any units of measure. This rule uses the Pythagorean theorem.

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Last revision: November 29, 2000