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UPDATE: Struggling with Forest measurements class..

Started by BrandonTN, September 19, 2008, 11:41:32 PM

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WDH

Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

BrandonTN

Forester, Nantahala National Forest

Chris72941

Quote from: WDH on October 30, 2008, 11:35:03 PM
Conclave brings back sweet memories ;D. 
Just about every Forest Service district ranger I discuss about UAM has stories/memories of the conclave. :D

Quote

Greetings Chris! Just be prepared to study and take good notes and you'll do fine. Also get involved with the forestry club at your school, and participate in Conclave--(the annual competition of all forestry schools in the southeast....lots of fun!) I may see you there sometime actually. I know Arkansas went last year. It may even be hosted at Arkansas next year.
I hear GIS is a good skill to have.
Over the past year and a half that I've been here at school my direction has changed some. First I started off wanting to minor in journalism. Then it was journalism and english. Then it was journalism, english and wildlife. Then I heard about forest-fire fighting, so I wanted to forget the minors and get done w/ school sooner. Now I'm planning on not minoring in anything, studying abroad next year, and then grad school after that. And work in fire if I can.
So things may change some. So, expect the unexpected.  ;)
Yea don't get me started on changing majors. I am guilty of that Business-IT-Forestry. Thats why I am getting the GIS minor because most of my IT classes will transfer to it easily. My original plan was to transfer for the fall(09) but I got a few things knocked out early and was hoping to get there this spring. 8) but now the job market is holding me down :-\ The conclave will be at UAM in 2010.

WDH

Quote from: Chris72941 on November 10, 2008, 05:55:21 PM
The conclave will be at UAM in 2010.

I competed in Georgia in 1976 and at Stephen F. Austin in 1977.  I also attended Clemson 1978 and UAM 1979 as a Grad student.  By all means, find a competition to compete in.  It will enrich you in your old age, and you can tell the young up-and-coming foresters about it  :).
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Rocky_Ranger

Ahhhh, sweet Georgia in '76, after getting MSU and Georgia conclave years mixed up earlier (old timers) it hit me as to how much fun I/we had down there.
RETIRED!

WDH

Rocky,

Maybe we competed against each other in '76 ;D.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

BrandonTN

About to go take my Silviculture final exam.  :o


Phew!

*Does pushups and jumping jacks*

  ;)
Forester, Nantahala National Forest

SwampDonkey

Hey, I just realized. I've been to your town to.  ;D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

WDH

Brandon,

My Silviculture final was 33 years ago :).  I would love to see a copy of the final ;D. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

BrandonTN

Took the Measurements & sampling final and actually feel better about it than I did about the mid-term.  smiley_thumbsup
Forester, Nantahala National Forest

SwampDonkey

You'll look back on that a few years from now and say to yourself they sure know how to put the mystery into some pretty simple math and procedures.  ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

BrandonTN

I look forward to that day. ;D

I can't imagine doing stand/stock tables and alot of the work we did without Excel.  How'd ya'll do it back before electricity?  :D
Forester, Nantahala National Forest

SwampDonkey

We had Quattro Pro I think. Needed it to do the regression for building the model (formula) using stem analysis data for making standardized volume tables, then to convert to localized from plotted data. Well we did a small exercise by eye balling the best fit of the data by long hand. If you know your math you can write the formula for a parabola just as a computer can. Ain't rocket science (well let me take that back :D ), but don't call me on the mat right now to regurgitate it. ;D

I think Quattro Pro became Excel.  Most Microsoft software was rebranded as such after Bill Gates acquired the companies. About the only thing creative from them was DOS and later Windows because Apple beat them to the punch. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

beenthere

BrandonTN
Back then (before SD) we used mechanical calculators...before electricity was put in them.

Then came the 10 x 10 keyboard mechanical calculators with electric motor instead of the crank handle.

Then in the 60's came the electronic keyboard (Wang had the first system that used algorithms to calculate, so sums of squares, square roots, and square of the sums could be tabulated. But a far, far, far cry from the computer power available today....
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

SwampDonkey

Old Baskerville, the Dean of Forestry at the time I went through the program, would fill us in the old days. That's when he worked in government. And we was talking about building sized computers they used at the time when the spruce budworm spray program began back in the late 50's. My laptop has more computing power by far.  :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Ron Scott

~Ron

WDH

Sometimes the good old days are not so good.  Especially without excel :).

We used Wang Calculators like BT said.  They were set up in a Lab. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

BrandonTN

So I guess back in those days it was the student interns or the greenhorns who spent most of their time doing the long form of what excel does.

And I learned about pivot tables in excel this year. Talk about efficiency! I guess foresters used to do all that by hand, on paper.....good rainy day work, it'd be.
Forester, Nantahala National Forest

beenthere

Quote from: BrandonTN on December 11, 2008, 12:47:41 PM
............ I guess foresters used to do all that by hand, on paper.....good rainy day work, it'd be.

A reason statistics was invented...to sample a population and make estimates, inferences, etc.  ;D ;D
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

WDH

Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Ron Scott

~Ron

SwampDonkey

Yeah like Ron said, evenings. I don't remember getting paid for those hours either.  ::)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Ron Scott

~Ron

baronthered

Slide rules and Curta mechanical calculators. Was lucky grew up with electronics but both of those old ones are still usefull, and the batteries never run out.  have an old Curta and a slide rule here for doing light figuring on stress analysis and stuff. Great for thos annoying poweroutages too.
Life's short make fun of it!

ID4ster

SD,

Quatro pro is the spreadsheet program made by Corel. Excell is the spreadsheet program made by Microsoft. I use the Corel products (Quatro pro, Wordperfect, etc.) almost exclusively since they are far easier and more elegant to use than the Microsoft programs. Quatro pro never became Excell because Microsoft can't afford to admit that there is a far better program out there.

In my suveying class at Paul Smith's we weren't allowed to use calculators, only slide rules or long hand. That seems archaic but it did make me relearn to do math in my head and get away from the total dependence on the calculator. Doing the math in my head has actually served me well over the ensuing years and I'm glad now that I was forced to do it in my second year. I still use a calculator to fiqure in and out trees in a prism cruise since it is quicker that way but I can do it if the calc quits on me. In my stats class we had graduated to using Lotus 1-2-3 which was the spreadsheet program that morphed into Excell. I also used a scientific calculator to do stats which really helped on regression analysis. By the way a Poisson distribution wouldn't do much in analyzing a tree plot but it would be useful in determining how many deer are eating your newly planted seedlings. 
Bob Hassoldt
Seven Ridges Forestry
Kendrick, Idaho
Want to improve your woodlot the fastest way? Start thinning, believe me it needs it.

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