Measurement of Tree and Stand Growth

Forest managers have developed a number of tools and approaches to deal with changes in tree size and forest composition and structure. Periodic forest inventories, networks of permanent sample points, and growth and yield models are the more common tools used by resource managers to predict changes, update inventories, and make long‐term forecasts to be used as inputs into management planning software. This chapter presents the mensurational aspects of measuring or estimating tree, stand, and forest growth. It presents an overview of growth and yield models and explores the role of these models in forest mensuration. Changes in roots, branches and crown dimensions, such as crown length, crown width, and height to the base of the crown, are measured in many situations. Carbon and nutrient contents are generally calculated from the new values of volume or weight.