Fifth Edition
This edition first published 2017 © 1972, 1983, 1993, 2003, 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Registered Office
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK
Editorial Offices
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK
The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK
111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030‐5774, USA
For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley‐blackwell.
The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author(s) have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Kershaw, John A., Jr., 1962– author. | Ducey, Mark J., author. | Beers, Thomas W., author. | Husch, Bertram, 1923– author.
Title: Forest mensuration / by John A Kershaw, Jr., Mark J Ducey, Thomas W Beers, Dr. Bertram Husch.
Description: Fifth edition. | Chichester, UK ; Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016036142| ISBN 9781118902035 (cloth) | ISBN 9781118902004 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Forests and forestry–Measurement. | Forest surveys.
Classification: LCC SD555 .K47 2017 | DDC 634.9–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016036142
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.
It was not without some trepidation that the two lead authors undertook the revision of this text. The 12 years since the last revision has seen many substantial changes to the field of forest mensuration and has marked a passing of a generation of mensurationists as reflected in the change of authorship of this text. The authors attempted to reflect this change while preserving the classic coverage that this text has been known for.
We first want to mark the passing of Dr. Bertram Husch, who served as lead author on this text through four editions and over 40 years. The first edition of this text, released in 1963, marked the first comprehensive coverage of the field of forest mensuration from a statistical perspective. We also acknowledge the passing of several other great mensurationists since the publication of the last edition, many of whom are cited throughout this text: Dr. Walter Bitterlich, Dr. Lew Grosenbaugh, Dr. Al Stage, Dr. Benno Hesske, Dr. George Furnival, Dr. Boris Zeide, Dr. Paul Van Deusen, and Mr. Bill Carr. They dedicated their lives to forest mensuration, advanced our knowledge of its principles and applications, and contributed much to the education of the current generation of mensurationists.
Forest mensuration is a living science, and one that continues to advance and grow as we build our understanding and as society’s needs and expectations of forests change. We have attempted to reflect those changes in this new edition. The fourth edition saw a major reorganization of the materials and the introduction of nontimber vegetation measurement and carbon estimation. This edition builds upon those changes. We moved the planning of a forest inventory from late in the book upfront to Chapter 1 and place a greater emphasis on estimation throughout. The coverage of nontimber vegetation and carbon accounting has expanded to reflect the current emphasis on these factors in forest management and forest inventory. These factors are integrated throughout the text rather than covered in separate chapters. We have developed an expanded chapter on sampling and estimating dead and down woody debris (Chapter 12) and added a new chapter on the use of remote sensing in forest inventory (Chapter 13). We have developed worked examples for all of the sample designs and have provided the base data so that instructors and students can work through examples in their classes. We have maintained the use of both Imperial units and SI units throughout the text. One criticism of the fourth edition was the deletion of the tables of variable probability sampling factors that appeared in the third edition; we have included these tables in this edition and appreciated the feedback from our colleagues.
The authors acknowledge the help of many friends and colleagues during the preparation of this revision. Drs. David Larsen, Peter Marshall, Robert Froese, Tzeng Yih Lam, Kim Iles, and Andrew Robinson commented on the structure of the book early during its development, and Tom Lynch provided especially valuable comments on a late draft. Dr. Jeffrey Gove commented on many of the datasets and examples used throughout the book. Dr. Jim Chamberlain provided data on black cohosh used in Chapter 3. R. Andy Colter provided LiDAR data from the USDA Forest Service, and Jamie Perkins assisted with the optical imagery in Chapter 13. Dr. Joel Hartter, Russell Congalton, Forrest Stevens, and Michael Palace provided outstanding insights on the role of remote sensing through the Communities and Forests in Oregon (CAFOR) project. Tzeng Lam and Andrew Robinson provided critical feedback on several chapters. Laird van Damme provided feedback on the structure of the book from a practitioner’s perspective. Ethan Belair carefully proofread the final versions of the chapters, and Julia Smith and Madison Poe helped with page proofs. Finally, we want to thank our families for their patience, encouragement, tolerance, and occasional distractions as this project progressed and protracted far longer than we led them to believe at the start.