M.W. Ritchie, Pacific Southwest Research Station
“…present a stand density index which does not require a yield table and
which is not affected by possible errors in shape of the total basal area-age
curve.” L.H. Reineke 1933
1. Scant data, N=19
2. Range of QMD
3. SDI=850?
Bo·gos´·i·ty n. the state or condition of being bogus.
“…some explanation as to how the maximum line for a species was determined might
well have been included...” G.L. Schnur. 1934. J. Forestry 32:356.
 Mixed Conifer:
 Red fir:
 Doug-fir:
 Redwood:
 Ponderosa Pine:
D. Dunning & S.B Show
F.X. Schumacher
R. McArdle
D. Bruce
W.H. Gallaher
“In Figure 5c data are shown… for second-growth ponderosa
pine as measured by Gallaher.” L.H. Reineke 1933
--Who is Gallaher?
--Why haven’t I ever heard of him?
--Why is Reineke using this guys data?
--Oh, and could I please take a look at the data?
“Bruce
“Today,isthere
probably
are perhaps
better qualified
a dozennow
foresters
to write
in America
a book on
(and
volume
one must
tablesinclude
and timber
the
estimating
Canadiansthan
to muster
anyone
even
elsethis
in the
number)
country.”
who have
D. Mason,
any real
December
grasp of 1914
the statistical
method and most of these feel keenly their inexperience.” D. Bruce 1925.
 Reineke. 1925. A test of taper tables. J. Forestry.
 Reineke. 1926. The determination of tree volume by planimeter.
 Reineke. 1927. Yield tables, How many plots?
 Reineke. 1927. A modification of Bruce’s method of preparing timber






yield tables.
Bruce and Reineke. 1929. The use of alinement charts in constructing
forest stand tables.
Bruce and Reineke. 1931 Correlation alinement charts in forest research:
a method of solving problems in curvilinear multiple correlation.
Reineke and Bruce. 1932. An alinement chart approach for preparing
timber yield tables. Bull 304.
1928. Promoted to head of Measurements Section (Chief Mensurationist)
1929. Reineke returns to Cornell and …
1929. Reineke heads west in the Fall, to Cal for a Masters degree, part time.
“…the time is not far distant when the bulk of the profession will not be able to interpret
intelligently the results our forest experiment stations produce.” D. Bruce. 1925.
Stuart Bevier Show
Duncan Dunning
-- 1920-1923 Data Collection for MC
Yield by Show and Dunning
-- 1925 Show published eastside study
-- 1926 CFRES created
-- 1926 Show appointed Regional
Forester
-- 1926-1930 MC Study is orphaned
W.H. Gallaher. 1913. Second growth yellow pine.
Forestry Quarterly.
W.H. Meyer. 1938. Bulletin 630.
--“Gallaher, W.H. Second Growth Yellow Pine. File Memorandum.
1912.”
“The reasons for the high values obtained by Gallaher are not fully evident. His measurements
were taken 25 years ago...”
W.H. Meyer 1938. Yield of even aged stands of Ponderosa pine.
“The Yale Forest School was established when the movement of forestry in this
country was in it’s infancy—at a time when the majority of the people were ignorant
of, indifferent to or opposed to the aims and methods of forestry.”
H.S. Graves. 1913. Biographical Record of Yale Forestry Graduates.
SDI=514
William Gallaher
Forest Assistant
Tahoe NF 1910-1913
Forest Examiner
R5 1913-1917
“Dunning was working in the ponderosa pine silviculture at Berkeley and he quit in a huff. He
was a pine silviculturalist [sic]. He wrote very little and left a mass of material
unpublished.” Leo Isaac. 1967 Interview.
Reineke did not
use data
“measured by
Gallaher.”
Although he
probably had
access to it.
Reineke used data
measured by
Larsen.
How they became
confused with
Gallaher is not
clear.
I do know that
PSW gave all the
data on hand to
Meyer in 1933…
Larsen’s plots ranged from
1/20 to 1/10 acre.
Elevation 4800 (4200-5200)
Gallaher’s plots were ¼ acre
and larger, most were 1/4.
Elevation: 2700 (2500-3300)
1. He had real problems finding pure stands.
2. Uniform spacing at something approaching “fully stocked” cond.
3. No gaps, little or no mortality.
“The chief difficulty in this country is to find plots which are pure and fully stocked.”
H.S. Graves. 1907. Forest Mensuration. Page 377.
Larsen’s 1914
Sierra data.
Larsen
Unpublished
1914
Slope=-1.619
s.e. =0.19
SDI90=828
Gallaher’s
Complete Tahoe
data. Gallaher
1914, unpublished
Slope=-1.607
s.e. = 0.057
SDI90=610
Show’s 1919
Eastside Pine
Data (Show 1925)
Slope= -1.532
s.e.= 0.067
SDI90=515
Victor Clement’s
data from 1933
(provided to
Walter Meyer for
Bulletin 630)
Slope= -1.657
s.e.= 0.052
SDI90 = 592
1.
2.
3.
4.
Reineke did not use Gallaher’s data, as claimed.
Reineke chose not to use Show’s data.
Instead, Reineke used Larsen’s data.
His published SDI from Larsen appears too high
(by 200-300 tpa).
5. Reason: Plot size, elevation, age???
“The chief difficulty in this country is to find plots which are pure and fully stocked.”
H.S. Graves. 1907. Forest Mensuration. Page 377.
Bruce left the Forest Service for good in about 1931. Spent the rest of his
career with Mason Bruce and Girard.
Show became regional forester (R-5) in 1926, effectively ending his research
career. He retired in 1946. Died in 1966. Buried in Palo Alto CA
Gallaher, had enough of the low wages and was hired by Standard Oil at
more that twice the salary at the close of WWI. He spent the rest of his
career working around the world for SO. Retired in the late 1950’s. Died in
New York Dec. 12th, 1964. Buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
Larsen published his only paper in 1916. He left the Forest Service shortly
thereafter and disappeared.
“During the past five years, there has been a cumulative realization that the low scale
of salaries paid by the Forest Service was causing a shortage of competent men on the
National Forests.”
Aldo Leopold. 1920. J. Forestry.
• In 1932, Reineke left Berkeley (degree not
completed) for New Haven in the
Northeast Station.
• His supervisor there was Charles Edward
Behre. They didn’t get along.
• In 1942, after numerous reprimands, Behre
demoted Reineke to a laboratory
technician and shipped him to Siberia
(Madison WI). He worked there in relative
obscurity until his retirement in
December 1965.
• After the death of his first wife (Evelyn) in
1970, Reineke remarried and he moved
with his new wife (Dorothy) in 1975…
… to 12270 SW 14th Street, Beaverton Oregon.
He remained there until his death in October
1995. He was 95 years old.
He is buried at Willamette National Cemetery,
plot Y 1540.