What tool software do you use to forecast tree/stand growth

[brianomars]

Say I have a forest stand of 30 trees, and I measure their basal area (BA) to get the current total BA of the stand. Now I have two possible thinning treatments to apply, but I want to test the response in terms of total BA after 10 years. I basically want something like this:

Current BA = 10
BA after 10 years (treatment 1) = 8
BA after 10 years (treatment 2) = 6

What tool or software is available for this?

[TreefarmerNN]

I'll be interested to see what readily available software might be on the market.  Large companies use some proprietary modeling software but the cost is spread over millions of acres.  Even then, they spend a lot of money getting on the ground periodic checks or flying lidar to make sure the trees are performing as expected. 

[SwampDonkey]

The best way is sample the forest now, perhaps mid term, and at year 10: BA, ages and species. Otherwise it is a WAG.  You still need site and species specific data however it's done. I've seen trees take 1 to 3 years to respond with any boost in growth. You need more crown and more available light to make more wood per year, besides what's in the ground.