News Release

This is not your father's forest textbook

Book Announcement

Virginia Tech

BLACKSBURG, Va., Sept. 14, 2001 – Recent advances in electronic and computing technologies have greatly impacted how forest resources are assessed. The fifth edition of Forest Measurements, by Virginia Tech University Distinguished Professor Harold E. Burkhart, retains the principal topics included in previous editions while adding new material on use of electronic devices for measuring distances, electronic equipment for recording field data, global positioning systems for determining locations, and geographic information systems for storing, retrieving, summarizing, and analyzing forestry data. In addition, a book web page is available to supplement, extend, and enhance information in the textbook.

The book is intended for introductory courses in forest measurements. Emphasis is on the measurement of timber, with detailed coverage on measuring products cut from tree trunks (tree boles), measuring attributes of standing trees, inventorying volumes of forest stands, and predicting growth of individual trees and stands of trees.

The book also includes background information on statistical methods, sampling designs, land measurements, and use of aerial photographs. An introduction to assessing range, wildlife, water, and recreation resources associated with forested lands comprises the last chapter. The measurement principles and techniques discussed apply to any inventory that includes assessment of the tree overstory, regardless of whether the inventory is conducted for timber, range, wildlife, watershed, recreation, or other management objectives.

Burkhart, forestry department head in Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources, is considered the pioneer of biometrics, the study of forest measurements to develop growth and yield models. First published in 1967 by T. Eugene Avery, the text has become the standard forest measurement text throughout North America. Burkhart collaborated with Avery in the production of the third edition (1983) and subsequently prepared the fourth (1994) and now the fifth (2002) editions. The fifth edition of Forest Measurements consists of 480 pages and is published by McGraw-Hill, 1221 Avenue of Americas, New York, NY 10020.

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PR CONTACT: Lynn Davis, (540) 231-6157, davisl@vt.edu

Cover of book is at www.research.vt.edu/resmag/photos/burkhart_book.jpg


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