Forest inventory

• lands unsuitable for forest cultivation without special reclamation measures - swamps, rocks, goltsy, stony placers, sands, unforested steep slopes and other inconvenient lands;
• lands occupied by arable lands, hayfields, pastures;
• lands occupied by forest roads, permanent forest warehouses, clearings, fire breaks, routes of power lines, communication lines, pipelines and other linear facilities, peat mining, homesteads, facilities for processing harvested timber and other forest products and other lands.

Forest inventory materials are put into effect by an order of the authorised executive authority or local self-government body within their powers defined in accordance with Articles 81 - 84 of the Лесной кодекс Российской Федерации and Article 10 of Федеральный закон от 4 декабря 2006 г. N 201-ФЗ "О введении в действие Лесного кодекса Российской Федерации".

Admission of contractors to forest inventory is issued by an order of the organisation performing the forest inventory, with comparative sheets of control inventory attached.

At the forest inventory meeting prior to the start of works, the specifics of forest inventory in the object of works shall be determined and the following main technical and organisational issues shall be considered:

• requirements to the materials of geodetic and technical basis of forest inventory (topo maps, materials of aerial or space surveys);
• distribution of the inventory object area by inventory grades and inventory methods;
• status of legal and in-kind registration of changes in the boundaries of the forest inventory object with adjacent land users, which occurred during the elapsed period since the last forest inventory (inventory works);
• recommendations on the formation of management units, forest enterprises and management sections;
• peculiarities of forest inventory;
• normative and reference materials used in forest inventory;
• availability of the scheme of transport development of forests, schemes of location and priority of creation, operation and reconstruction of existing and projected forest infrastructure facilities and facilities not related to the creation of forest infrastructure;
• other technical and organisational peculiarities of forest inventory works.

At the forest inventory meeting upon completion of the works the results of forest inventory works are considered.

Decisions made at the meetings are recorded in the minutes of forest inventory meetings.

A forest inventory unit is a limited forest area, relatively homogeneous in terms of soil and ground conditions, qualitative and quantitative indicators of vegetation growing on it, the variability of which does not exceed the normative tolerances and determines the implementation of the same measures for the use, protection, defence and reproduction of forests on its entire area.

Adjacent forest areas are divided into forest inventory units by qualitative and (or) quantitative characteristics.

Adjacent forest areas with heterogeneous characteristics may be combined into one forest inventory unit if the area of one or two of them is less than the established minimum. As a rule, such areas are joined to the type of forest site conditions closest in inventory characteristics or to the largest of the adjacent forest inventory units. In this case, differences in the values of timber stock per 1 hectare, stocking and composition factor of the prevailing species of the main and united forest inventory unit shall not exceed the limits of permissible errors in the determination of these indicators and change the designated management order for the largest (in terms of area) of the united forest inventory units.

Forest inventory is carried out using the age class method. The age class method consists in the formation of forest enterprises (coniferous, hard-leaved, soft-leaved), management sections, consisting of aggregates of forest stands homogeneous by species composition and productivity, territorially separated, but united by a single age. The primary accounting unit of forest inventory according to the age class method is a forest inventory unit, and the primary calculation unit is a management section.

The duration of the age class interval is established for cedar, eastern spruce and Caucasian fir - 40 years, for other coniferous species and hard-leaved species of seed origin - 20 years, for soft-leaved and hard-leaved species of coppice origin - 10 years, for fast-growing species - 5 years, for shrubs - 1 year.

Cutting-area allotment is the delineation (demarcation) in the field with visors of a forest plot where clear-cutting or selective felling will be carried out, and its instrumental survey.

On forest lands not covered with forest vegetation, forest inventory establishes tree species, site class, forest type, which are determined by the type of forest site conditions, adjacent forest stands and are specified according to the documents of cutting-area allotment.

Tree tally with a relascope is carried out by component tree species. To determine the average height of the main forest element (tree species, age generation, stand storey) and the most represented component tree species, instrumental height measurements of 3 - 5 trees close to the average are made at a forest inventory unit. If it is necessary to clarify the age, wood cores are taken from the same trees using an increment borer.

The data of all measurements at relascope plots are recorded in the inventory card.

The average height and average diameter of the stand are determined as arithmetic mean values of their measurements in the average trees of the forest element.

The timber stock of a forest stand or a storey per 1 hectare is determined according to the procedure set out in paragraph 120 of this Instruction.

Before laying circular tally plots of constant radius their radius is determined, the value of which depends on the stocking and average diameter of the stand on the forest inventory unit, the recommended radii of circular tally plots depending on the average diameter and stocking of the stand are specified in Annex 8 to this Instruction.

On average, there should be at least 15 trees on one plot.

Tree tally at the plots is conducted by forest elements.

The data of tree tally on circular plots established in a forest inventory unit shall be summarized and average inventory indices shall be calculated from them.

Assessment of the sanitary and forest health condition of forest stands is carried out in accordance with the Rules of Sanitary Safety in Forests, approved by постановление Правительства Российской Федерации от 29 июня 2007 г. N 414 (Собрание законодательства Российской Федерации, 2007, N 28, ст. 3431), and other regulatory legal acts.

In the presence of trees in forest stands damaged by harmful organisms, animals, atmospheric emissions from industrial enterprises, and other negative factors, as well as recently dried natural mortality, the timber stock of such trees per 1 hectare is determined. Additional information on the inventory card indicates the reasons for the damage or types of harmful organisms, the merchantability of damaged and dried trees.

When inventorying dead and damaged forest stands, a separate inventory characterisation is given for the living and dead parts of the stand. For the dead part of the stand that retains merchantable timber qualities, the composition, age, average height, stock of liquid timber per 1 hectare, as well as the average diameter of tree stems and merchantable class for each component tree species are indicated.