The Swiss Continuous Forest Inventory: its genesis and its future

For planning and control we need information on the actual condition of the forest, its changes, increment and drain. Information on the actual condition is most often gained in an optimal way by mixed samples of temporary and permanent plots. For information on changes in the condition permanent sample plots are more efficient, for information on increment and drain permanent sample plots are necessary anyway. Permanent plots must be relocatable. For visible permanent plots, however, nobody knows if they are treated in exactly the same way as the rest of the forest. In the long run it becomes more and more uncertain whether the permanent samples remain representative of the whole forest and whether the results still make sense. For this reason the forest inventory method using unmarked, permanent sample plots was invented forty years ago. The visible plot centre has been replaced by a piece of metal buried in the ground, which can be found by a metal detector. The trees in the plot can be recognized individually because their coordinates, distance and direction from the centre were registered on the occasion of the first inventory. Nowadays, this method is applied successfully world-wide. The story of this invention shows how much has to fit so that new ideas can be born and be effective. Applied research is especially demanding because it implies very different skills and therefore only a well assembled team can be successful: Important unsolved (but possibly solvable) problems must be recognized, they must be solved in a creative and scientific way, the methods must be operational down to the last detail and, finally, they must be propagated effectively. In a last chapter some open problems are discussed. Electronic measuring devices, geographic positioning by satellites, new computer program systems, geographic information systems, connections by internet and other new technical possibilities will be made use of and the combination of sampling and mapping might bring further advantages. The interpretation of the data and their application in practical monitoring as well as in research leave much to be desired. The importance of monitoring health and sustained development of the forest and its steering is still not recognized everywhere. Sometimes the coordination of the unsolved tasks is missing.