Deconstructing the Timber Volume Paradigm in Management of the Tongass NationalForest

摘要

Timber volume information and associated maps have been widely used in theTongass National Forest for land-use planning and timber and wildlife management. Although considerate effort has been expended to improve timber volume maps, little has been done to evaluate the suitability of timber volume as a descriptor of forest character. The authors established a rough indicator of forest structure that uses trees per acre and quadratic mean diameter to examine the relation between timber volume and forest structure. Results indicated that timber volume and forest structure are not interchangeable attributes. Results also indicated that the original photinterpreted timber volume stratification did not always capture differences in timber but may have captured differences in front structure. The recently revised timber volume stratification provides more reliable timber volume information, but it sacrifices structural information in the process.