Day 1 – FPS Localization by SiteGrid and CASH Card

Here is a quick summary of the first day of the FBRI hosted event and some of the things we learned.

  1. Parking at Oregon State University costs a fortune.
  2. in 1 month the new FPS libraries will be released with no software update.  July was specifically mentioned several times.  Perhaps we will see that promised library from several years ago.
  3. Participants will receive a USB stick with all materials from the class.  (Highly recommend FBRI contributors asking for the same)

The class itself…

The 10m site methodology can be broken in to 3 pieces

  • Regeneration  f(Micro Site)
    • Height Growth Potential =
    • Early stand establishment
  • 10m Site f(Macro Site)
    • 10m Site = 100 / {# years @ 34′ (10m) – # years @ 67′ (20m)}
    • Productivity based on growth
  • 10m Shape f(Limiting Site Factors)
    • 10m Shape = {# years @ 34′ (10m) – # years @ 67′ (20m)} / {# years @ 67′ (20m) – # years @ 100′ (30m)}

Rules of thumb:

  • Site 60 = 1′ growth a year
  • Site 90 = 2′ growth a year
  • Site 120 = 3′ growth a year

Converting from 10m Site to Site base x:

  • Site base 50 = 10m Site * 10 + butt log (10 meters ~ 34′)
  • Site base 25 = 10m Site * 5 + butt log (10 meters ~ 34′)

The butt log length to add in seemed to range from 30′ – 34′.  You will find the FSD uses 32.8084 or 10 meters.

King Site Curve can be estimated with Height Growth Potential of about 72% and shape of about 67%

Sampling based on the following factors:

  • Growing season length
  • Degrees North
  • Elevation
  • Aspect
  • Annual / Seasonal precipitation (season based on days above 10 degrees C or 40 degrees F
  • Soil Depth / water holding capacity

Climatic changes don’t necessarily grow more rapidly during the season but the season is longer.

All site data was compared to King and Monserud site curves.

A new feature of the site grid calculator includes looking at a 1 mile radius to calculate horizon.

The CASH card was introduced.  An idea said to have been developed by Weyerhaeuser Centralia, WA around 1966 – 1968.

All data is smoothed using “Pascal Smoothing”.  The best reference FSD can find to this is NASA (NASA link has been removed(2016/08/09).  Can also be found at the Internet Archive)

Collecting The Data:

For highly productive stands measure from node to node of the tree and only remain close to the 10m breaks.  This can all be corrected mathematically later.

The user will populate:

  • TAPHEAD
  • TAPTREE

FPS will calculate:

  • TAPFORM
  • SiteTree

An additional menu option is available in these databases to allow the calculations.

Field Tour:

 

Additional resources:

10m Site Calculator

Site Calculation Form
MSMT HT(ft) AGE(yr)
100'
67'
34'
0'