I have a variable-radius forest inventory that contains diameter at breast height (DBH) and basal area factor (BAF) data for each tree. I’d like to calculate the basal area per acre, but since the plots were collected with a variable radius, I don’t have an area estimate. I know multiplying the “in” trees from a prism by the BAF can produce an estimate of the basal area per acre, but I don’t know if the number of trees in each plot of the data corresponds to an actual count of “in” trees when they were measured in the field. That is, using this method, is the convention to record the DBH of all “in” trees, in which case I could simply count the trees and multiply by the BAF? Or, is there an alternative way to calculate basal area per acre using the DBH in combination with the BAF?
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