Pacific Southwest

Title: Estimation of crown cover in interior ponderosa pine stands: Effects of thinning and prescribed fire

Author: Vaughn, Nicholas; Ritchie, Martin W.

Date: 2005

Source: Western journal of applied forestry. 20: 240-246

Description: We evaluated the relationship between crown cover measured with a vertical sight tube and stand basal area per acre in treated (thinned, burned, and thinned and burned) and untreated interior ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa P. & C. Lawson) stands in northeastern California. Crown cover was significantly related to basal area at the plot level and stand level. In addition, the relationship was not affected by two extremely different thinning regimes. However, the predicted crown cover was generally lower, for a given level of basal area, in a recently thinned stand than in a stand that had not been recently thinned. Prescribedfire had no detectable effect on the relationship. The maximum measured value of stand level crown cover in untreated stands in this study was about 60 percent.

Keywords: Sight tube, basal area, white fir

View and Print this Publication (2.0 MB)

Publication Notes: 

• We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
• This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.

 Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility

Citation

Vaughn, Nicholas; Ritchie, Martin W.  2005.  Estimation of crown cover in interior ponderosa pine stands: Effects of thinning and prescribed fire.   Western journal of applied forestry. 20: 240-246.