New Forest Sampling and Inventory Book
For those of you who have been waiting for an understandable statistics book that covers forest inventory and sampling, your wait is over. Dr. Kim Iles has just released his book titled "A Sampler of Inventory Topics." The subtitle is "A practical discussion for resource samplers concentrating on forest inventory topics" and the book lives up to it. Those who have followed this newsletter for a while have no doubt come to appreciate the many contributions made by Kim - he has shared many valuable and practical insights and provided easily understood explanations of difficult statistical concepts. Now multiply this by 869 pages and you have a great resource. In some ways this book is in the spirit of Frank Freeses' successful classics "Elementary Forest Sampling" (Agriculture Handbook No. 232) and "Elementary Statistical Methods for Foresters" (Agriculture Handbook No. 317). It provides the basics of important principles and many (worked out) examples specific to forest sampling. However, Kim warns that "this is not a standard textbook" as it goes beyond just the statistics and computations and provides explanations, insights and practical advice. The book covers a wide range of topics in 17 chapters:
Kim is well known as an authority on variable plot and 3P sampling and these chapters reflect this. However, chapter 10 on Transect Sampling provides a very good and accurate discussion of this topic not found in many papers or books. Chapter 14 covers the topic of Edge Effects in a way that is not found in books on sampling. Both English and metric units are covered. The last two chapters on regression and hypothesis testing are not printed in the book, but are included in the accompanying CD. The CD also contains nearly 100 spreadsheets that perform most of the sampling and statistical computations covered in the book and the examples from the book. This book is appropriate for both the student who can learn from Kims' practical experience and for the experienced field sampler who wants to better understand field sampling and be more efficient. If you are involved in the field of forest inventory or data collection, or if you work closely with field samplers, this is a book that you will want to have in a place that is easy to reach. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the book, contact Kim Iles directly. His email is kiles@island.net. The book (ISBN 0-9732198-0-7) is hardcover and sells for $40 US and $60 Canadian plus shipping. Kim is in the process of developing a web site with book information and updates and we will pass that along to you when it is available. |
