Estimating the board foot to cubic foot ratio

Steve P. Verrill; Victoria Herian; Henry N. Spelter

doi:10.2737/FPL-RP-616

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Estimating the board foot to cubic foot ratio

Informally Refereed

Authors:

Steve P. Verrill, Victoria Herian, Henry N. Spelter

Year:

2004

Type:

Research Paper

Station:

Forest Products Laboratory

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2737/FPL-RP-616

Source:

Res. Pap. FPL-RP-616. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory: 18 pages

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Abstract

Certain issues in recent softwood lumber trade negotiations have centered on the method for converting estimates of timber volumes reported in cubic meters to board feet. Such conversions depend on many factors; three of the most important of these are log length, diameter, and taper. Average log diameters vary by region and have declined in the western United States due to the growing scarcity of large diameter, old-growth trees. Such a systematic reduction in size in the log population affects volume conversions from cubic units to board feet, which makes traditional rule of thumb conversion factors antiquated. In this paper we present an improved empirical method for performing cubic volume to board foot conversions.

Keywords

Scribner scaling, diameter, length, taper, truncated cone, smoothing, calibration

Citation

Verrill, Steve P.; Herian, Victoria L.; Spelter, Henry N. 2004. Estimating the board foot to cubic foot ratio. Res. Pap. FPL-RP-616. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory: 18 pages