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

The day started off with a USB stick of documentation and taper software being distributed.  I highly recommend ALL FBRI Contributors request this from the Portland FBRI Office.

This seconds day was very much an observe the use of the software tool with most of the day spent watching the alternative software options being run.

What do the SiteTree.flag codes mean

• Flag 3 – default at taper compile
• Flag 2 – trees that are only used in site calculations not shape.  this is likely due to lack of a 100′ measurement.

Discussions over finding sites to locate site trees.  The strata column in the sitegrid can help as the 4 numbers have meaning based on the ranges of the data in your site grid. The ranges are 1 – 3 (low – high) and are based on Elevation, Season (Days), Precipitation and Soil.

The 10 Degree Centigrade calculations built by the site grid utility are based on “Weather Service Temperature Algorithms”.  No references were provided.  The original FPS solar radiation calculations were based on the works of the Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group at the University of Montana.  (also undocumented)

Soil values need to range from 0″ – 60″ and can be based on several items depending on local driving factors.  Some of those values can be

• soil rooting depth
• Available Water Holding Capacity
• Plant Available Moisture

Sampling across the Growing Days and Precipitation ranges

The new SiteGrid utility will calculate east and west horizons.  Without these columns the routine will not work.  (more on these can be seen at the FSD Wiki) The radius of the horizon calculation is 1.5 – 2 miles. (undocumented and vague at the workshop)  If no points are available the routine will assume a 5% horizon.

When processing the data focus on the primary species first and work from there.

Admin.flag and SiteGrid.flag code 10 for updating values in the site grid.

The maximum points able to be processed at one time by the new Physical Site routine is 4 million.

“FBRI will be posting research on ResearchGate site”