Tree marking
Mark trees in the field against the quota per size band, check the marking on control plots, use the relascope helpers, and turn the session into a recorded intervention once you confirm it.
- For
- Foresters and marking crews
- Time
- 8 minutes to read
- Where
- Field app — stand › Marking; web — Field work › Marking
- Updated
On this page
The stand’s latest inventory gives a quota per size band (how many stems per hectare to take from each band to move toward the target). In the field you mark the trees you choose and tap each one’s diameter class; the app keeps the tally against the quota. It cannot name a tree.
Mark in the field
- 1 Tally · Control plot · Relascope
- 2 Marked, habitat trees, BA removed
- 3 Flags: over the quota
- 4 Species for the next mark
- 6 Undo · Review
- 5 Tap the diameter class of each tree you mark
- Open Marking from the stand, and start a session. Three tabs: Tally, Control plot, Relascope.
- Read the tiles — trees marked, habitat trees kept, basal area removed and its share of the stand.
- Watch the flags — a band over its quota, or habitat trees below their target per hectare.
- Pick the species for the next mark (and optionally a reason: thinning, crop-tree release, target diameter, health, other).
- Tap the diameter class of each tree you mark, in its band card. The bar fills toward the quota and turns amber when over.
- Undo the last mark; Review to close the session.
Eyes-free marking: voice, read-back and volume keys
Keep your eyes on the tree: say each tree, hear the count back, and get an alert when a band reaches its quota. It works with no signal once the speech model is on the phone.
- Open Eyes-free at the foot of the Tally tab. Turn on voice and pick the language you speak: English, Français, Deutsch or Español. Download its speech model once (40–46 MB; Wi-Fi recommended).
- Hold Hold to talk (or hold volume down) and say the tree: “beech forty-five”, “sitka thirty quality bee”, “chêne soixante et onze”. Digit by digit works too (“four five”). Leave out the species and the selected one is used.
- Each tree is a proposal, read back to you. Nothing is saved until you press Confirm (or volume down); Discard, volume up or saying “undo” drops it.
- Commands: “undo” removes the last tree (it stays in the log as an undo), “total” gives the trees marked so far, “repeat” repeats the last read-back (in French “annuler”, “total”, “répéter”; in German “rückgängig”, “Summe”, “wiederholen”; in Spanish “deshacer”, “total”, “repetir”).
- Read-back can be Full (“Beech 45 — 12”), Count only or Off. Quota alerts speak and vibrate when a size band reaches its quota, and again for each tree past it. Silent mode mutes speech; vibration stays.
- Say only species of this stand. If a word fits two of them (“spruce” with Sitka and Norway spruce), say the full name.
- If something is misheard, the reason is shown and said (“Two numbers heard”, “Not in the list”).
- Optional auto-commit saves a proposal after a few seconds unless you say “undo”. Those trees are recorded as not individually confirmed, and the review asks you to check them.
- With the small French model, western hemlock can’t be said: tap it instead.
Control plots and the marking audit
A control plot (default 20 × 20 m, e.g. the Irish WIS thinning control plot) is measured in full during marking: every tree, marked or not, potential crop trees (PCTs) and habitat trees. It checks the marking: basal area removed against the prescription, and whether the crop trees were kept. Record it on the Control plot tab.
Relascope helpers
- 1 Borderline tree: in or out?
- 2 New count-only tally
- Borderline tree: in or out? Enter the BAF, the DBH and the distance to the tree centre (and slope if not horizontal): the app says whether it counts.
- Count-only tally — a quick VISUAL-style sweep: “in” trees by species and broad size class, for basal area per hectare without measuring diameters.
Review and confirm on the web
- 1 Confirm and record this intervention
Field work › Marking shows each session: trees marked per band against the quota (a chart and a table), basal area and volume removed, share of the stand, cut ÷ increment, and the flags. The session is turned into an intervention only when you choose Confirm and record this intervention; until then nothing is applied.
Below the session, Marking control plots lists each plot — trees, marked, basal area, BA removed % against the prescribed %, and quota agreement — and the marking audit (Ontario Tree Marking Guide style: the share of trees marked correctly, infractions, and whether enough plots were assessed). Relascope tallies give basal area with a 95 % interval and the share by size class against the ideal.
Σ min(marked, quota) ÷ Σ max(marked, quota) per band — useful to compare markers, but not a published standard.
- It never selects trees, and does not map individual marked trees.
- Marking sessions can be linked to the plan register by hand; they are not linked automatically.
Sources: BDq quota (de Liocourt; Forest Research BDq calculator); Ontario Tree Marking Guide v1.1 (audit, §7.3); VISUAL relascope sweep after Spazzi et al., Irish Forestry 76 (2019); Irish WIS 2023–27 thinning control plots.