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Understorey Measurements

The purpose of this section of the class is to become familiar with how to measure understory including shrubs. litter, fuel loadings via photo guides, and Brown's line intercept method. The lectures, assignments, and labs in this section, will enable the student to achieve the following learning objectives:

• Understand and Describe the differences between density, frequency, cover, and biomass

• Know how to measure abundance of shrubs, forbs, and grasses

• Know how to use a fuel photo guide to estimate fuel loading
• Know how to take duff and litter measurements
• Know how to take downed wood and snag measurements
• Understand and Describe different line intercept method
s
• Understand and Describe different point intercept methods
• Understand and Describe different quadrat methods
•  Understand and Describe the Daubenmire and Wandering Quarter Distance methods
• Know how to use Brown's line intercept method to estimate surface fuel loading
• Understand and Describe the cover, density, and frequency

Lecture PDFs:  

• Week 10M - Shrubs, Forbs, Litter, and Duff (PDF)

• Week 10W - Snags and Large Woody Debris (PDF)

• Week 10F - Recitation

• Week 11M - Fuels (PDF) (Nov)

• Week 11W - Fire Behavior and Effects Measurements (PDF)

• Week 11F - Recitation

Labs:

• Week 10 Lab: Cover and Line Intercepts (PDF)

• Week 11 Lab: Fuels (PDF)

Required Readings:

• Week 6 Readings:
  • General Technical Report INT-144 Pages: 1-14 (PDF)
  • Habitat Examples (PDF)
• Week 7 Readings:
  • Handbook for Inventorying Downed Woody Material (PDF)
  • BLM Measuring Book Pages: 159-199 (PDF)
  • Fuel Strata - Sandberg et al., 2001 (PDF)
  • Coarse Woody Debris Review (PDF)
  • Downed Woody Photo Guide (PDF)
• Week 8 Readings:
  • Lidar in Natural Resources (PDF)
• Lidar Acquisition Parameters for Forestry (PDF)
• Lidar Canopy Fuels (PDF)

Additional Resources:

• Husch, Beers, and Kershaw pp 162-200 and 228-290
• Complete the FCCS tutorial at: http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/fera/research/tutorials/materials/fccs_tutorial_html/index.htm
• http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_int/int_gtr122.pdf
• http://www.firemodels.org/downloads/behaveplus/publications/Scott_and_Burgan_RMRS-GTR-153_2005.pdf  
• BROWN's Excel Sheet (xlsx)