Tree planters’ record system
Euan Mason
New
Zealand Tree Grower May 2005
Tree planters’ record system (TPRS) software has been developed by
the
Farm Forestry Association with the support of the Sustainable Farming
Fund. This software aids record keeping while ensuring that decision
tools can use the stored records.
A particularly useful feature for NZFFA members is the facility to
implement and analyse your own forest inventory with help from TPRS. A
full set of simple instructions are available as a series of web pages
that will lead you through an inventory. This facility will provide
stem volume estimates for your woodlot.
|
| The forest DSS software window. Content in
the right-hand pane changes
depending on the level of records selected in the left-hand pane.
Plugins appear on the menu labelled ‘Available plugins’ when they are
available for any given level of records. |
TPRS allows small woodlot owners to record important details about tree
planting on their properties. These records can then be fed to
decision-support packages dubbed plugins in the system, that help with
a variety of decisions.
The system acts as a journal, and allows people to associate pictures,
spreadsheets and other documents with their tree planting activities.
Records are arranged in a hierarchy, from district down to features of
stands. Users first select their district, and then within districts
they can record properties, paddocks within properties, stands and
trees within paddocks, and so on. For each of these levels they can
specify relevant details, such as the fields shown for stands as shown
above, or associate images, spreadsheets and other documents with
those records as shown below.
Records can be attached to items in the system in the form of pictures,
spreadsheets , or other documents.
Plugins are designed to work at different levels. Growth and yield
models, for instance, work at a stand level, while district council
regulations – only high country districts are available at present –
are displayed at a district level. Plugins are available for both of
these functions, as well as species choice for stands in high country
districts, a wilding risk estimator, and an inventory calculator
package. Any programmer can create plugins that the record system can
support, and developers of the core system do not intend to build an
entire suite of plugins themselves. If users want a particular plugin
tool, then they can have it developed by making a contribution towards
development costs.
The inventory calculator plugin automatically detects the right kind of
analysis for a forest inventory. It can handle fixed plots, point
sample plots, simple random inventories and stratified random
inventories.
The system can be downloaded
and installed automatically from the web,
and it is currently provided free of charge. Users need to have
installed version 5.0 of the Java run time engine (JRE), and simple
instructions for this are available on the project’s web site. Any
updated versions are installed
automatically if the record system is started while the user’s computer
is attached to the web.
The first release version is available now. You can link to the system
from here.
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