Growth analysis of University of Tennessee forests in Morgan and Scott Counties

In 1962 a study was initiated on the Scott County Tract to (1) relate soil and other site factors, such as aspect, topographic position and slope, to species composition and growth rate, and (2) establish a modern timber inventory system. At that time a continuous forest inventory was established using 99 sample plots distributed over the 4,289 acre tract of forest land. Results of volume analyses revealed that the forest was understocked, due to a previous history of fires and logging, and that most of the timber volume was of low quality. In 1967 the second phase of the study was initiated. Its purpose was to remeasure the plots at the end of the first five year interval and to expand the analytical system with respect to timber growth calculations. Computer programs were written to calculate segregated growth components for each species. The results of the study revealed that net change for sawtimber was 64.9 board feet per acre per year or 4.5 percent annually. Pulpwood was growing at a rate of 3.9 cubic feet per acre per year or 5 percent. The standard errors of these growth rates were 14 percent for sawtimber and 15 percent for pulpwood. Recommendations for the next remeasurement are to (1) measure total height of all trees, (2) delete cull deduction percents from the basic volume information, (3) use post stratification, and (4) increase the total number of plots by 85 to reduce the standard error of growth to an acceptable allowable error of 10 percent.