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A Total Forest Management Plan
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Hyperhardwoods

Design of a Hardwood System for the Next Century

Under development

Cover art, USDA, by Fred McCauley, in Rouse 1985
Hopefully useful to people participating in The Trevey, this unit of the site attempts to integrate knowledge about hardwoods and to present a system that someday might be under under management. The site title sounds like one dealing with forestry, but it is about the entire system of relationships that someday may result in a profitable entity. Profitable, large, diverse entities are believed to be the only ones that are lasting over many years. Not about forests or wildlife but about a total land-related system, the system quickly becomes mired in the words of people who generally are not very discriminating in their word use. Such disregard may be reasonable because of the shifting politics of tree-life time. Schools differ. Agencies go to court over words, and the general public with whom most natural resource specialists have to interact, are generally poorly informed about the wildlands or their products.

My intent here is to use words precisely and to define them as I progress. I shall use old words but they may have new meaning, as defined herein. Perhaps readers and discussants can use the definitions and concepts here to advance rapidly and effectively the concept of long-lasting, modern, sophisticated entrepreneurial wildland resource management systems.

Starting at the End - One of the basic ideas of practical systems work is to start at the end. When the system operates, what happens? When the work is over, what do you have? How can you tell when you are successful? These are questions all related to objectives and performance measures. At the end we want a likely-to-be- sustained, profitable system directly related to and identifiable as a hardwood system but one having many components and subsystems related to the lands of the hardwoods. In addition to profits, we want all of the services, some enhanced, of such areas. We seek services, products, opportunities, views, ideas, information, memories and memberships, all together as a single system producing profits for the longterm future (at least 150 years sliding forward a year each year).We want a working system that is good for the landowner and neighbors. How to get that is the work described within this unit.

Subsystem Profits - I once thought that meaningful economic analyses could be done for systems like forests. Then I realized that land owners and corporate executives do not make decisions based on the profits within one branch of their company or ownership. They decide annually and on the basis of the entire enterprise. The farmer does not report forest income but total income from the farm for tax purposes. In fact, "conglomerations" are acquired for that very reason ... to average out gains and suppress information about losses. The reports are made about the total system performance; the losses within one or two subsystems are played-down, explained away. A farmer working with a beef cattle herd, tobacco, vegetables, and forest land reports on income, not separate sources. Management, labor, equipment, land, and facilities are used together to gain profits from the total enterprise. Being aware of this structure and the role of profits within the larger enterprise can affect decisions about how precisely certain decisions must be made. It affects sampling decisions, investments in information, and knowledge when "close-enough" is "good enough." Within the hyperhardwood strategy, mastery of all of the components of the subsystem (hereinafter the system) is attempted in order to allow it continue indefinitely as a very productive component of the larger system as defined by the owner. (We explore the larger system as imagined as Rural System elsewhere.)There is always the awareness that it is only a part of a larger system and must be fit within and analyzed as a part of that system, not just added into it.

Equifinality - Within the system I strive for the optimum but have become aware that within many natural resource systems there are plateaus, not optimum points. There are many different (and some equal) ways to get to the same point (or equi-valued plateau of points). There being equal procedures to the same end-state is called equifinality. The optimum point may be desired but there may be a cluster of equal values. This gives the manager much needed freedom. Choices can be made, even in conditions of conflict, when an an apparent loss can be claimed and an adversary appeased (but an equivalent to the desired condition,(unknown to the opponent), is selected. If equifinality can be seen, risks, frustration, and stress can be greatly reduced and many alternative strategies exposed for consideration.

Not trees and not money from wood, but lasting profits from a hardwood-related enterprise is the objective. "Wood" like wildlife is a mind magnet. It prevents temporarily a person thinking about the potentials of a large, diverse, profitable enterprise related to hardwoods. These are described in Lasting Forests texts but here the parallel is mentioned. The multibillion dollar football enterprise is related to a leather-covered ball, but the ball is almost irrelevant in terms of the profits and diversity of that enterprise. Analogously, I am describing a hardwood enterprise but the imagined greater corporation which is akin to that of football, is many times larger, more complex, and probably more profitable. We have had our eye on the ball (on wood) too long. It is now time to study and to create systems for managing profit-making from wildland into perpetuity.

Like a great modern sculpture, I can admire a clean, organized, profitable factory. It is a human creation, one of great size and complexity. It is physical and operational; it is people and leadership and team work. It can be a thing of great beauty. Beauty is not a clear justification for attempting to design and create the hyperhardwood system ... but it might happen. In the beauty may be the essence of profitability. Ability to do work is power (Odum); perhaps beauty for some people is the perception of power. Perhaps appreciation of power lies at the center of evolutionary survival.

Planting or Regeneration- Starting the forest is difficult. Few know enough about how to achieve adequate hardwood reproduction or re-planting. A manager must know

Inventory - Spurr (1952:3) said that forest inventory deals with methods of obtaining information on volume and growth. I revise this to suggest that the inventory is the result of counts and measures, tallies, analyses, and reporting. Inventorying, the verb, uses the best methods and procedures developed over the past 2 centuries at measuring primarily volume and change in volume (or growth) per unit area, typically the acre or hectare. It has been well established that volume is strongly related to tree height and tree diameter. Height and diameter are strongly related as well suggesting the single measurement of diameter can suffice if there are good models developed to estimate volume as a function of diameter within a region.

We are only interested in volume that can make money. We are only interested in volumes the value of which exceed the probable cost of making inventories and the other costs over about 150 years, only those ..."that can be financed under present-day economic conditions." We exclude all areas within an ownership that cannot be harvested by conventional and available harvest systems. This eliminates lands unsuitable (various criteria, viewsheds of importance, and special reserve areas.) It also eliminates destruction areas (where wood will be removed no matter what the findings about wood volume (e.g., creating a pond). It eliminates reserve areas where decisions have been made that little or no wood will be taken (e.g., ancient forests). It eliminates all riparian areas where special harvest considerations are required. The area for intensive study can become very small. Using the GIS to isolate pixels that are representative of others and near roads, the sampling procedures can be simplified and reduced further by sampling near roads proportional to the area in each forest site ( a combination of slope, aspects, elevation and position (McCombs 1998). Time and travel are high cost components of inventorying so field work needs to be carefully planned for effective field time spent in measurements.

Because inventory has financial importance, the very concept of inventory has to be changed from an interest in volume/area to valued-volume/area, quantity to quality, and thus from the first, there must be included concepts of wood uses and at least gross values for pulpwood volumes, board feet, and energy-wood.

This creates conceptual as well as data-gathering problems. We can see the tree and measure it, but we can only approximate wood values. They may change in the market tomorrow. By the rules of arithmetic we have to round our numbers to the lowest level of confidence, the fewest significant figures. We measure to the third decimal place, then divide grossly estimated or temporary dollar-worth figures! We must be aware of the balance we must make and in general use the numbers as guides to decisions, not precise estimates. One consequence is that we can take smaller samples, fewer samples, and incur less cost. We will be making better decisions because of use of our superior models rather than excessive time spent in taking very large samples.

Errors in sampling or field observations are well known. If the estimated probability of no measurement error is 0.8, and the probability of no sampling error is 0.8, and the probability of not having data transcription errors is 0.9, then the joint probability of all three being the case is 0.57. The odds of a correctly measured and reported number are only a little better than those for a coin-toss. Recall, too, that merchantable height of a tree is an expression of the distance from the base to a point where the stem becomes some percentage of the base (or a minimum) ... then rounded to the nearest multiple of 2 feet.

We use a tape to measure tree diameter. This over-estimates the diameter slightly but consistently (due to bark and oval shapes encountered); the overage declines in the larger trees. The Smalian formula is used for volume of a log, namely

V = ((a + b)/2)/ length

where a is the cross-sectional area at the small end and b is the area at the larger end.

A first approximation of volume of a tree can be found from

V = (D2/100)(H/4)

or the square of the diameter rounded to the nearest 100 and multiplied by one-fourth of the tree height.

Heights have been difficult to measure. We work from felled-tree measures.

In the hyperhardwood system we typically have GIS area maps with many factors stored for each alpha unit. Site characteristics for each major hardwood species are combined in logistic regressions and species maps developed. We progressively build volume tables over time that are site specific (i.e., for species-specific units that are alpha unit specific). Typically five representative trees are selected in a stand, a GPS location recorded, and the measurements entered. These are added to a growing tree data base for a region or large ownership.

Site factors are numerous but solar radiation and soil moisture are dominant. We cannot measure them all along with trees to understand every forest. We can reduce the variance in our estimates by developing GIS units in which moisture and radiation are similar, thus controlling the two dominant variables, thus reducing variance, thus reducing required sample size. Confidence limits are relaxed to alpha=0.90 and tolerance limits reduced to 10%. We take this standard, fixed procedure, fully aware of the uncertainties and variables described above. The fixed procedure allows us to make adjustments (so-called "adaptive management") in decisions, not to re-do models and re-compute intricate hypothesized relationships. We model the best thought processes of the experts, not necessarily the processes of the biological or physical system.

The general pattern for our volumetric relations studies is:

log V = loga + blogD + clogH + dlogk

where D is diameter H is height, and k is the diameter at 7 feet (reflecting form class when linked to dbh) and multiple regression is used. Corrections needed after log uses are made based on Spurr 1952:74).

Tables are no longer of use for we employ the equations (developed in auto-regression procedure for stands and site conditions) to calculate a volume and then to present it in a standard readable format for the land owner, stand by stand, area by area.

Work Toward a Hyperhardwood Policy

The policy…

  • Whereas wood and wood products are initially a product of the land, and
  • Whereas wood seems to imply trees and forests, it, nevertheless, needs to be viewed as a product of a single economic land unit, a combination of pasture, cropland, forest, ponds, and roads, only some of which areas that have rapid, healthful tree growth suitable for use, and
  • Whereas some forests are in public ownership and under professional management, the majority of such wood-producing land is in private ownership, and
  • Whereas there is a centuries-old profession of forestry with a substantial base of experience and research findings related to the growth and yield of forests, their ecology, management, protection, and economic analyses, for which there is much needed use, and
  • Whereas profitable sustained production of wood from many different tree species on many different areas over a long planning periods (in some cases of over 200 years) is essential for landowners and corporations, and
  • Whereas within such forests there may be great variability caused by fires, floods, poaching, and disease and insect attacks while financial investment rates, human preferences and needs for products, and land values change, and
  • Whereas it is essential for responsible decision makers to gather and use with computer aids the best information and experience available about trends in forests and related ecosystems, human needs, and global trends in supplies as well as human demands to meet the needs of investors as well as loyal customers dependent on a supplier of quality goods and services, and
  • Whereas foresters, also known as wildland managers, are educated and experienced to provide these decision makers with a small set of viable options among which they may make optimum decisions, and
  • Whereas these wildland managers integrate the 5-E concepts of economics, ecology, esthetics, enforcement, and energy budgeting into their process of developing a limited set of options for achieving the objectives for a land unit, and
  • Whereas there are well-known dimensions of this complex system that are difficult or impossible to precisely quantify, foresters have developed strategies to estimate and approximate measures and to avoid irresolvable conflicts in reaching decision options, and
  • Whereas there are areas within the economic land units that cannot be reached for tree harvests, areas too steep or too wet for equipment operation, areas of roads, mineral removal, and facilities, and areas too sensitive to risk tree removals. These areas can be mapped and intensively studied for harvest and reforestation and removed from the base acreage of likely-wood production, and
  • Whereas there are areas of great esthetic appeal, often groves of ancient trees near water, and these areas can be protected and only unobtrusive logging done so that the area does not decline in its old growth characteristics and is perpetuated for future people, and
  • Whereas past efforts have emphasized "sustained yield" of wood, there have been legal and value changes that have resulted in yield of wood but no yield of profit to loggers or land-owners, this wildland owner's policy is now that on the areas designated for production, that production should be of sustained profits from wood or forest products, and
  • Whereas significant gains in profits may sometime be made by separating reforestation, harvests, processing of different tree species, and selective marketing, such segmentation needs to be carefully analyzed and used where appropriate, and
  • Whereas wood producing sites must be carefully managed (1) to avoid erosion, nutrient depletion, and other forces and factors that might impair their ability to produce equal of sustained profits over the long-run (assumed to be 100 years, advancing one year each year), and (2) to attempt to restore and enhance that ability, and
  • Whereas past forestry has concentrated on tree growth, sophisticated wildland management now includes all of the potential production elements of the land unit. These units, when under management, typically have annual financial returns, which aggregated and considered separately from logging returns, often exceed the value of wood taken from the same area at the regulated time of harvest, and
  • Whereas land-uses such as hunting, fishing, berry-picking, bird-watching hiking, camping, sightseeing, and nature study are available on public lands, the supply is limited and the demand for quality, supervised and safe, diverse experiences is large and may be satisfied with profits by creatively developed and well-managed privately-owned areas … on which trees also grow, and
  • Whereas organizations have been formed (e.g., SmartWood in the eastern US) to provide private land owners with official inspections and certification that their forested areas are well-managed and likely to have sustained forests, products, and profits, and
  • Whereas international as well as US wood markets pay premium prices for wood (as well as products made from such woods) from such certified forests, this wildland owner will attempt to expedite development of such certification and thereafter purchase and feature the sale of certified wood and wood products from such areas, and
  • Whereas well-managed chip-mills can efficiently remove and produce diverse, improved, multiple products from forests, they will be used and encouraged to create sustained, enhanced flows of products from the lands that benefit landowners and sustain profits from their land units over the long planning periods involved in such profit-production, and
  • Whereas wildlife population species and abundance and water runoff are directly correlated with forest type but especially with the age class of each forest stand (e.g., 50 acres), it is essential for age classes to be tightly controlled by forester-supervised harvest and thinning work to achieve a wide, planned array of all age classes over the landscape, and
  • Whereas hundreds of fish and land wildlife species, water quality for all uses, and esthetic appeal of land is highly dependent on well-managed, well-vegetated pond, lake and stream-banks, then special care and management are to be given to these areas, and
  • Whereas "biodiversity " has been incorporated into many laws, special efforts are made by this wildland owner to prevent any species loss and to monitor species present on private lands and their relative abundance and to report the changes in useful indices expressing these numbers, and
  • Whereas "watershed management " is widely praised as a basis for land management, this wildland owner analyzes the watersheds on which wood is grown and from which it is harvested and reports on the likely effects of their comprehensive land management on the key watershed measures of runoff and sediment yield, and
  • Whereas "ecosystem management " has also gained international praise as a basis for land management, this wildland owner analyzes land ownerships (if requested by owners), and presents a performance measure that indicates the level of management achieved, part of the knowledge needed to assure that the production of the area is sustained, and
  • Whereas uses of products other than wood and replacements of wood have been suggested, all known products with the required characteristics of strength, weight, etc. have very high embodied energy (fossil energy and equivalent energy costs) and thus such substitutions will rarely be made, and
  • Whereas forest and land management become increasingly less well known by an urbanizing society, this wildland owner will implement a rigorous educational program and demonstration units, and
  • Whereas effective use of knowledge from wildland managers can be assured only from educated landowners, a modern program of incentive-based study will be conducted for landowners, and
  • Whereas effective marketing of enviromentally-sound, well-sustained products can be enhanced by an incentive program for employees and customers, such a program will be created, and
  • Whereas the task of meeting the varied needs of many landowners and all of the customers of this wildland owner is enormous, efforts will be made to work with other organizations and individuals to achieve synergism and to potentiate the efforts of each other as they match with the above policy, and
  • Whereas we believe this is policy will be beneficial to this wildland owner, its employees, to customers and the general public now and in the future, we adopt it and will revise and improve it with experience and as the benefits flow from the policy to all concerned for now and into the future.
  • Therefore we shall attempt to adopt and implement a land and water-based system for sustained profits, within bounds, for hardwood forests and related lands for a well-perceived future of 150 years

    Information about 21 species of North American hardwoods is now available from the Hardwood Manufacturers Association. The address of the Hardwood Association information center is 400 Penn Center Boulevard, Suite 530,Pittsburgh, PA 15235 (412-829-0770).

    The hypertext unit on oaks of D. Mike Rauscher may soon be reached on this system.

    The Hardwood Forestry Fund can be reached at hffund@hpva.org.

    Robert H. Giles, Jr., 2000

    Literature Cited

    Spurr, S. 1952. Forest inventory, Ronald Press Co., New York, NY 476pp.

    Giles, R.H. Jr. 1999. Forest faunal systems.

    Green, Statistics for Ecologists

    Rouse, C. 1985. Fire effects in northeastern forests:oak, USDA Forest Serv. Gen Tech Rpt- NC-105, North Central For. Exp. Sta.,

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    Last revision January 17, 2000.