• Rice, Ben
  LandVest Timberland
  
• Weiskittel, Aaron
  University of Maine
  
• Wilson, Jeremy
  Harris Center
  
• Wagner, Robert
  University of Maine
  

Poor forest inventory can contribute to suboptimal forest management decisions, resulting in significant financial losses. With this in mind, forest inventories need to be designed and conducted to optimize a balance of relevant quality data while minimizing costs. Due to the inherent variability in forested systems and the subjective nature of balancing competing values, there is no single approach that predictably serves both purposes across a range of stand conditions. With the increasing pressures on forests to supply a range of goods and services to a growing global population with a decreasing forestland base, being able to accurately, precisely and efficiently sample forest conditions is critical. This study reinforces this notion for post-harvest forest inventories and demonstrates that horizontal line sampling is a viable method that may be well suited to highly variable forest conditions.