About

The Farm Forestry Toolbox is a collection of computer programs (called tools) designed to assist owners and managers of small to medium-sized forests map, measure, and manage their estates.

First conceived by Dr Andy Warner, and with contributions by many, Toolbox has been developed by Adrian Goodwin and Andy Warner since 1996. Versions 1.0 to 5.3 were funded by the Australian Federal Government as encouragement for private forest development, and owned and managed by Private Forests Tasmania (PFT). Since version 5.4 it has been owned and managed by Adrian Goodwin. A comprehensive history and description has been compiled in Wikipedia.

Toolbox installation files can be downloaded from here, or the PFT web site. It is free to download and use.

Tools are categorized as HAND tools, POWER tools, EDITORS, and the HEALTH tool.

Please note that some of the tools demonstrated in the following linked YouTube videos may not show recent modifications.

HAND tools are mostly simple, stand-alone programs.

Conversions: of compound units; e.g. distance in feet and inches to meters.
Map Co-ordinates: converts eastings and northings to and from latitude and longitude.
Log Stack Volume: calculates log volumes using any of the major log volume equations.
Slope: handy for calculating tree height and corrected slope distance.
Wedge: calibrates angle-count wedges.
Survey: a simple mapping and drawing tool; handy for plotting chain-and-compass surveys.
Stocking: the number of plants per unit area given any blocked planting pattern.

POWER tools are sophisticated inter-related programs requiring data from various EDITORS

Site Productivity: estimates forest productivity on greenfield sites. This tool requires physiological growth models which, for Eucalyptus nitens and Pinus radiata, require re-calibration and are temporarily unavailable.
Inventory - Tree Mode: for exploring single tree shape, volume and value.
Inventory - Plot Mode: forest product and carbon assessment and valuation.
Stand Manager: simulates forest growth and performs financial analyses.

EDITORS change system-wide settings and prepare data for use by the POWER tools.

Default Data: sets system-wide currency, units, location, and forest measurment definitions.
Models: Toolbox has 50 tree shape models and 17 forest growth models. This editor allows only models of interest to be displayed by the POWER tools.
Regime: a chronological list of financial events which may also affect forest growth.
Biomass: defines tree-level biomass components.
Log Grade: defines round-wood grades, products, and cutting strategy.

The HEALTH tool is a visual disease identification key for blue gum and radiata pine in southern Australia.