FOREST INFORMATION UPDATE
20 March 2000


Forest Information Update (FIU) is a free weekly email newsletter sent to people interested in the inventorying and monitoring of natural resources.  FIU is produced by Forest Information Services (http://home.att.net/~gklund/) and is supported by organizations, agencies and individuals working in the natural resources field. Back issues of FIU may be found at http://www.foresters.org/fiu/index.htm. Currently FIU is sent to about 4000 email addresses world-wide. Many of these recipients forward FIU to their own mailing lists. To subscribe or sponsor, contact me at gklund@worldnet.att.net. Thanks Gyde

FIU SPONSOR - This issue of FIU is sponsored in part through the generous support of:
SYLVANIA  INTERNATIONAL (Canada)  -  Use BUCK! Merchandize your forest to maximize profit!  http://www.forestyield.com . For a fraction of the cost you will make your forest management plan better (and  defendable)! Sylvania International (Canada) offers a unique software which adds significantly to credibility of  any forest management plan. Software BUCK produces locally valid stem profile models and  individual tree timber product yield tables. These provide estimates of the volumes of any user-defined timber product. Inside or outside bark, metric or imperial... A new individual tree taper/volume model used by BUCK was successfully tested against many traditional formulae.  No risk to the client: If you are not satisfied, return the product and get your money back.. Contact Sylvania International at sylvania@forestyield.com  for the details.

INPUT - This week's input comes from Hugh Bigsby, Russell Brown, Ray Czaplewski, Barry Ellliott, Richard Hayes, R.K. Kohli, Don Nearwood, Kevin Porter, Graham Savage, Vivek Varma, and Antonina Zakrzewski. Thank you all for sharing your information!


HAVE YOU HEARD? GENERAL

PROF. KHOSLA HONORED - Dr. Ravinder Kohli reports, "lThe Dayanand National Academy of Environmental Sciences in collaboration with the Indian Society of Tree Scientists, International Union of Forestry Research Organisations (IUFRO), and the Department of Botany and the Centre for Vocational Studies, Panjab University had organised a 2-day National Seminar on Man and Forests from 18 to 19 February 2000. This seminar was organised as a mark of respect to Professor Prem Kumar Khosla, Vice-chancellor, H.P. Agricultural University, Palampur, coinciding with his 60th birthday. Professor Khosla – a well known Forest Geneticist is considered a torchbearer, leader and promoter of forestry Education in University system in India. The fact that he happens to be the first Indian ever nominated to the Executive Board of IUFRO – (an NGO with over 15000 members from 110 countries) since its inception in 1892 speaks in itself his recognition as a world leader in Forestry Education. As a token of respect, the organisers of the Seminar also dedicated to him a compendium entitled "Man and Forests" (See "Publications"  below). Professor Jeffery Burley, Director, Oxford Forestry Institute, Oxford and President, IUFRO wrote the foreword of the book."

CARBON MONITOR is a newsletter published by Environmental Intermediaries & Trading Group Limited. It covers many issues on commercialising the carbon offsets created by Kyoto and provides regular updates with commentary. You may sign up for Carbon Monitoring for free by emailing Richard Hayes - rhayes@nznet.gen.nz   with your full contact details.

CERTIFICATION CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS ONLINE.  The majority of the presentations given at the Premier's Round Table Forest Certification Conference, held 7 & 8 Feb. 2000in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada are now available on-line.  The can be found on the Fundy Model Forest web site at www.fundymodelforest.net  They are located in the Print and Multimedia section, on the Miscellaneous Page.

OLDIES BUT GOODIES (PART 1/3) - The Cornell University NEH Book Collection is a collection of 599 core agricultural books from the 19th and 20th century that were selected for a project funded by the NEH to transfer books to digital images and then have those digital images converted to microfilm. These images are now being made available for online viewing, and are listed alphabetically at  http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/neh_A.html. Here is a listing of those that apply to forestry:


HELP!

LANDSAT 5 IMAGES OF CHILE SOUGHT - Patricio Gonzales writes, "Can you help me with information about where I could get Landsat 5 TM images for years 1994 or 1995. Now we are updating forest resources information for 9th Region in Chile. This information was registered in 1994 based on aerial photographs. The idea is to make multitemporal analysis to detect changes in vegetation cover and then to update forests mapping. These images must correspond to path=233 and rows=86 and 87." If you can help, please contact Patricio González Díaz,  INSTITUTO FORESTAL, Subgerencia de Estudios Económicos y del Medio Ambiente Area Inventarios y Mensura, Huérfanos 554, Santiago, CHILE. Fono: +(56)(2) 693 0801, Fax:+ (56)(2) 693 0798. e_mail: pgonzale@infor.cl

VOLUME MEASUREMENT SUGGESTION - Don Nearhood writes "As a forest engineer I know that in order to get the data I need it is necessary to completely understand the volume units and how they are measured.  Typically I'm most interested in weights and pay units. It seems that there is an unending array of different ways of defining volume.  The confusion with 1000 board feet is huge and cubic measurements are surprisingly complex. It is the measurement of wood volume in all of the forest industry situations that is confused.  Just thinking about these three primary units of measure: cubic metre, cubic foot, and board foot.  There must be a thousand algorithms for getting these units depending on product, location, use, culture, tradition, etc. We in the USA tend to think cubic meter is simple when it is not.  I know many Europeans think that since one board foot is defined as one twelfth of a cubic foot that they can calculate simple conversions to cubic meters. We don't notice the variation until we try to compare volumes across
products or cultures or locations and so on. Here are some sites on the subject:

Maybe publications need to treat volume measurements like we treat common names of tree species. You can use common names but you have to include the scientifically accepted genus and species name. I would encourage someone in the measurements world do a short, graphic, succinct paper Journal article emphasizing the worldwide variability among the measurement systems and products measured." Donald K. Nearhood 11045 SW Berkshire St. Portland, Oregon 97225 USA. Te1: +1-503-644-0972. Email: nearhood@aracnet.com.

FULL-TIME FORESTRY INSTRUCTOR - The Bachelor of Applied Forest Resource Management Program at Grande Prairie Regional College, Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada is looking for a highly motivated individual to take on the challenges of developing and teaching in this new program.  This unique four-year applied degree program has been developed in partnership with the forest industry and includes two semesters of practicum at an industry site.  With Grande Prairie and vicinity supporting a number of major forest industries, the position will provide excellent opportunities for networking with forest industries. The ideal candidate will have a minimum  Master's Degree in one or more of the following areas: timber harvesting/forest engineering, forest fire management, GIS applications in forestry, and  mensuration. Individuals with relevant industry and successful teaching experience are preferred.  Candidates with experience in other forestry related areas may also be considered. Candidates with excellent administrative experience and leadership skills are especially welcome to apply as this position may include Program Coordination duties. This full-time annual position will begin August 15, 2000, and end August 14, 2001, and is renewable subject to satisfactory evaluation and funding availability. Submit your resume including names of three references to: Human Resources, Grande Prairie Regional College, 10726 - 106 Avenue, Grande Prairie, AB, T8V 4C4   Canada.    Fax:  +1-780-539-2854.  Email: humanresources@gprc.ab.ca. URL: www.gprc.ab.ca.

BIRD-BANDERS WANTED - Lynn Lewis writes, "The Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS), College  of Vet. Medicine, University of Georgia (USA)is looking for help in  conducting an avian influenza study. We're looking for anyone who is or will be banding any species of  shorebird along the east or gulf coasts this spring or summer.  We need to take cloacal swabs from juvenile and/or adult birds (we need  birds after they fledge, to facilitate virus prevalence).  Cloacal  swabs do not harm the birds and we would be more than willing to help with banding duties!! Please contact me, if anyone has any information regarding banding stations." Contact: Lynn Lewis, SCWDS, College of Vet. Med., UGA, Athens, GA 30602 USA. Tel: +1-706-542-1741. Email: llewis@CALC.VET.UGA.EDU



HAVE YOU READ?  PUBLICATIONS

Obtain from your local library or from the sources provided. For listing of publications from previous FIUs see http://home.att.net/~gklund/invpub.html.

Alfredas,  Galaune; Gintautas, Mozgeris. 1998. Geographic Information Systems in Lithuanian Forestry: An ArcInfo AND ARCVIEW based solution. In. Proceedings, 13th ESRI User's Conference, 7-9 October 1998. Firenze, Italy. On-line at:  http://www.esri.com/library/userconf/europroc98/proc/idp12.html

Anon. n.d. Proceedings of the ISPRS Workshop - Sensors and Mapping from Space. University of Hannover, 27-30 September 1999. The complete proceedings are available on a CD for the price of DM 49. See http://www.ipi.uni-hannover.de

Anon. 1998. Resources in Earth Observation. Case studies, data and information for schools and developing countries. CD Rom. Contact: CNES, 2, palace Maurice Quentin, 75039 Paris cedex 01, France. URL: http://ceos.cnes.fr.

Bristow, Duane. 1997. An Introduction to Forest Measurements from a field forester's perspective. Available at http://www.webcom.com/duane/wood/measure.html

Brack, Cris. 1999.  Forest Measurement and Modelling. Online at: http://online.anu.edu.au/Forestry/mensuration/index.htm

Casanova, J.L. ed.  2000. Remote Sensing in the 21st Century: Economic and Environmental Applications. Proceedings of the 19th EARSeL Symposium, Valladolid, June 1999. ISBN: 90 5809 096 5. Contact: EARSeL Secretariat, 2, avenue Rapp, 75350 Paris Cedex 07, France. Tel: +33-1-45-567360. Fax: +33-1-45567361. URL: http://www-earsel.cma.fr .

Cieszewski, C.J.; Bailey, R.L.  2000. Generalized Algebraic Difference Approach: Theory Based Derivation of Dynamic Site Equations with Polymorphism and Variable Asymptotes. Forest Science 46(1):116-126. Abstract at: http://www.safnet.org/pubs/forscience/index.html.

DeFries, R.S.; Townshend, J.R.G. 1999. Global land cover characterization from satellite data: from research to operational implmentation? Global Ecology and Biogeography 8:367-379.

DeFries, R.S., et al. 2000. A new global 1-km dataset of percentage tree cover derived from remote sensing. Global Change Biology 6:247-254.

Di Gregorio, A.;  Jansen, L.J.M. 1998. A New Concept for a Land Cover Classification System. The Land 2 (1): 55-65.

Di Gregorio, A.; Jansen, L.J.M. 1998. Land Cover Classification System (LCCS): Classification Concepts and User Manual. Environment and Natural Resources Service, GCP/RAF/287/ITA Africover - East Africa Project, Soil Resources Management and Conservation Service. FAO, Rome.

Garcia, Carles et al. n.d. The Information System of Catalan Forests: SIBosC. GIS Applications on Forest Database. On line at: http://www.creaf.uab.es/MIRAMON/publicat/papers/lisboa98/SIBosc.htm

Graham, Lee A. 2000. GPS/GIS integration. GEOEurope 9(2):24-27.

Guth, Peter L. 1999. Quantifying and visualizing terrain fabric from digital elevation models  http://www.geovista.psu.edu/geocomp/geocomp99/Gc99/096/gc_096.htm

Kohli, R.K., et al. 2000. Man and Forests. Proceedings honoring Prof. Prem Kumar Khosla. Approx. 550 p. Sections include: Forest diversity, Forest environment, Forest improvement, Forest products, Forest biology,  Forest conservation and management, Community forestry, Agroforestry  and  Urban forestry. Published by DNAES, IUFRO, ISTS jointly with Botany Department and Centre for Vocational Studies, Panjab University. Chandigarh, India. ISBN 81-85838-00-3 Price: US $ 50 including postage (Air-mail). Contact:  Secreatry, DNAES, Department of Botany, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160 014, INDIA. e-mail: rkkohli@glide.net.in ; rkkohli45@yahoo.com. Fax: +91-172 541 409.

Lund, H. Gyde; Iremonger, Susan. 2000. Omissions, commissions, and decisions: the need for integrated resource assessments. Forest Ecology and Management 128(1-2):3-10. http://www.elsevier.nl/inca/publications/store/5/0/3/3/1/0/

Manson, Paul. 2000. GPS-based tools for GIS data maintenance. GEOEurope 9(2):21-22.

Radcliffe,  Samuel et al. 1998. Use of Radar Remote Sensing to Measure Forest Density and Volume. Banzhaf Final Report. Online at: http://rs320h.ersc.wisc.edu/ersc/Projects/arc/Banzhaf/final.html

Sekretenko, O.P.; Gavrikov, V.L . 1998.  Characterization of the tree spatial distribution in small plots using the pair correlation function. Forest Ecology and Management: 102(2-3):113-120.

Tretheway, Raymond 1999. Volunteer-Based Urban Forest Inventory and Monitoring Programs. Results from A Two-Day Workshop.  February 17 and 18, 1999. Sacramento, California. Sacramento, CA: Sacramento Tree Foundation. Available on line at: http://wcufre.ucdavis.edu/imwsproc.htm

Varma, Vivek K. et al. 2000. Decision support system for the sustainable forest management. Forest Ecology and Management 128(1-2):49-55 http://www.elsevier.nl/inca/publications/store/5/0/3/3/1/0/



YOU'RE INVITED! MEETINGS, WORKSHOPS, TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

For previous listings of upcoming inventory and monitoring related meetings, see:

16-19 April 2000. Assessment and Management of Forest Investment Risk. Christchurch, New Zealand. The conference has three sessions that address risks in terms of biological and physical risks, socio-political risks, and marketing and financial risks.  Details about the conference, including registration information can be found at: http://www.fore.canterbury.ac.nz/nzif/rgstrtn.pdf

14-16 June 2000. Management information systems 2000, incorporating GIS and Remote Sensing. Lisbon, Portugal. Contact: Brian Privett, WIT Press. Tel: +44-2380-293223; Fax: +44-2380-292853. Email: witpress@witpress.com. URL: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/conferences.

24-29 June 2000. Natural and anthropogenically induced hazards: space and time dependent hazard evaluation in complex Earth systems. Contact: EURESCO - URL: http://www.esf.org/euresco/active_c.htm.

27-30 June 2000. Direct broadcast of Earth Observation Data - 4th International Conference. Dundee, Scotland, UK. Call for papers open until 1 May 2000. Contact: Fourth DB Conference, Attn. Nicholas Kirby, Dept. of APEME, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4HN, Scotland, UK. Tel: +44-1382-344933. Fax: +44-1382-345415. URL: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/dcczr/dbform.html.

31 July - 4 August 2000. Modeling Complex Systems: Conference and Workshop.  Montreal, Canada.  This conference focuses on the theory, methods, and techniques in modeling  complex systems in earth sciences.   With rapid developments in complexity theory and computational technology, modeling has entered a new era and become indispensable for addressing many complex issues, such as Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Ecological Systems, Ecosystem Management, Forest Health, Global Climate Change, and Sustainability.  The magnitude and complexity of these issues pose grand challenges in the theory and practice of modeling.  Meeting these challenges requires integration of relevant theories with powerful modeling techniques, and makes essential the sharing and reuse of models as well as the collaboration of modelers. The conference is being advertised and administered strictly through electronic means i.e., the web and e-mail.  If you are interested and want the complete story please go to the conference/workshop web http://atl.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/conference /   where you can register, submit the title of a paper, or submit an abstract.

12-14 September 2000. RSS2000 - Adding Value to Remotely Sensed Information. 26th Annual Conference of the Remote Sensing Society. Leicester, UK.  Contact: RSS2000 Office. Fax: +44-116-252-3854. Email: RSS-2000@leicester.ac.uk.

20-22 November 2000. GPS in Forestry: Workshop 2000. Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Call for papers open until 5 May. For details of the meeting, see http://www.feric.ca/wd/gps/gps2000.htm



WHILE SURFING THE WEB…INTERESTING LINKS

For listings of previous links see http://home.att.net/~gklund/invlinks.html

USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Monitoring Environmetrics - http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/ftcol/rwu4804.htm

The Scout Report for Science and Engineering - http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/sci-eng/current/index.html

Arizona Standards for Rangeland Health and Guidelines for Grazing Administration Glossary - http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/agnic/political/azstandardsglossary.html

Glossary of Mapping Terms http://www.epa.gov/ceisweb1/ceishome/atlas/learngeog/glossaryofmappingterms.html



As always, please share as appropriate. If you have any new resource inventory/monitoring-related publications, meetings, or news that you would like listed in FIU, please contact me … and don't forget I always welcome sponsors. This newsletter is dependent upon your continued input and support. Cheers. Gyde

--
H. Gyde Lund
Forest Information Services
8221 Thornwood Ct.
Manassas, VA 20110-4627 USA
Voice: +1-703-368-7219, Fax: +1-703-257-1419
Email: gklund@worldnet.att.net
URL: http://home.att.net/~gklund

Join the Global Association of On-line Foresters (GAOF).
See: http://www.foresters.org