Lecture 3: Vegetation Sampling - Alaska Geobotany Center

Tree height
Use your trigonometry
for something useful!
There are many
methods. We will use
one:
45 o 90 o
45 o
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• If the tree is ver4cal, and you stand
where the angle to the top of the tree is 45
degrees, the distance from you to the tree
is the same as its height
• To get the angle to be 45 degrees
• measure the length of your arm,
from shoulder to fist
• hold the meter s4ck ver4cally, so
that distance extends above your fist
• if you put your eye close to your
shoulder and sight at the top of the
meter s4ck, that is 45 degrees
• walk to a point where you can sight
on the top of the tree and are level
with the bojom
• measure the distance to the bojom
of the tree
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