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A Total Forest Management Plan
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This page provides the format and planned text for individual land owners. Places for inserts made automatically by computer are indicated.
An analysis of the area itself seems self evident but there are many dimensions of this one topic. Knowledge is needed to assess value, to make comparisons with other areas, to compute density of many other factors (items/unit area), and to use as a factor in analytical models. Many things are a function of or directly affected by the size of the area.
The area is seen in Figure 1. (A picture is available suitable for framing).
There are xxxx mapped acres within the boundary (The boundary will be discussed in a later section.
Equivalents areas are: Acres (designated as Acres1)
Hectares (Acres1 x 0.4046.87)
Square miles (Acres1 x 0.0015625)
Square kilometers (Acres1 x 0.004047)
The total estimated land surface area within the boundary is:
Acres (designated as Acres2)
Hectares
Square miles
Square kilometers
The surface area (not the mapped area) may be an amusing statistic. Absolutely flat land will have the same numbers as above, but mountainous land will have many more surface acres than the surveyed or map area. The surface area is only important in a few ecological measures but difficult to estimate and thus few people have used the number. It is routinely reported here for likely valuable use in the future. Likely important relations are in
The ratio of map area to surface area is XXX (Acres 1/Acres2).
Square-root Relationships
The square root of the mapped acres is likely to be well related to several ecological variables (e.g., animals move directionally, not areally). The notation is Area0.5 (meaning square root of the area) but further analyses to answer specific questions may yield a different coefficient than that of 0.5. Good correlation with the following numbers may suggest the need for further refinements in the coefficient.
| Units | Mapped Area | Surface Area | Square Root of Mapped Area |
Square Root of Surface Area |
| Acres | ||||
| Hectares | ||||
| Square Miles | ||||
| Square Kilometers |
The naperian logarithm (logarathithm to the base e) of the number of hectares is xxx3. In ecological studies, this number may be better correlated with certain phenomena than the area itself.
Circularity Index
Another statistic (grossly the radius in feet) that may be well correlated with area phenomena is xxx4. (That is (A/pi)s). Differences in species richness and some other measures of diversity, for example, may relate better to this statistic than to area.
Area of a tract or unit of land is often best seen in relation to other areas.
Tracts
The total number of stands or tracts that are mappable and different than adjacent units is a gross measure of area diversity. It is used in several places in the system. The total number is xxx5.
The number of different stands may be more meaningful relative to species richness than total stands. If small and scattered (a checkerboard), there could be not only two types of stands but many of them. There are xxx6 different types of stands. The ratio of the two, 32.5 may be instructive. This index is simply the number of types divided by 2, the minimum. The closer the ratio is to 1.0, the more dispersed and diverse the management area.
Average Tract Size
The average size of tracts or stands may be useful in making between-area comparisons. Management can make this number increase or decrease over time depending on objectives. The ratio of mean to the variance is a classical statistical expression. When the value is 1.0, the stand sizes are said to be randomly distributed. When the ratio is very large, the stands are about the same size (uniform). When it is very small, the stand sizes tend to be clumped. For this area, the mean size is 3.16 acres, the variance is xxx7, thus the ratio is xxx8 The distribution is not random but clumped.
Modified areas are those pieces of land that should not be counted in wildlife or forest production. They include picnic area, roads, etc. Summary statistics are presented. A small area with many acres modified and many non-forest tracts can appear to be unproductive of wildlife.
There may be areas where there are few modified acres. Where they are few, or small, they can be ignored.
A separate analysis is made of the non-forest tracts (e.g., ponds) since they are few and have a very different wildlife production than forests. Later, separate analyses will be added for each type as appropriate.
A concept of packed, equilateral hexagons is used as standard for computing edge, contiguity, and interspersion relations. By assuming the average stand size is that of each of the number of hexagons (stands or units), then a standard map results. The average distance (r) from the center to the side (the inscribed circle) is related as
r = (S/3.4641)s
For example, in an area with the average stand size of 60 acres (43,560 sq. ft. in an acre) the radius is
r = (43560 x 60/(3.4641)S
r = 868 feet.
The radius of a circle of 60 acres is 912 ft.
Within this area, the value of r is xxx9 feet. This radius, r, is believed to be related to animal movement, cruising radii, and the ease with which an animal may utilize the resources of contiguous land use units.
Details about the location or geopolitical context of the area are also available. Also see Area Description
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Last revision January 5, 2002.