InfoVeg

Release a new version of data entry tool, protocol and datasheets that allow people to say "We included ALL stems in 'natural stems'" or "We included ONLY non-planted stems."

They have to check one or the other (no default) though we can encourage the current system as the default. Then people can flag stems if they want or not.

From a Tom Wentworth email, June 3, 2007:

[For] the two flavors of data sheets that currently record "natural" woody stems (2 & 3, 4 & 5), let's simply change this to "total" woody stems. There are three pluses for this change. First, there will always be a complete record of all woody stems (at least within the size criteria specified on the data forms) on the site when one opts to record something other than planted woody stems in levels 2-5. Second, if someone is also recording planted woody stems, there would be no need to mark these stems to avoid counting them a second time as natural (or total, as currently proposed) woody stems. Third, if someone opts to only to record natural stems (or total, as currently proposed), they will not end up with a rather bizarre characterization of the stand that excludes the planted stems, which may constitute a significant proportion of the stand. The only down side to this proposal is that there's a small time investment in recording some stems twice if both inventories are opted for. But I think the advantages outweigh this disadvantage.

I think we are content with keeping natural and planted stems separate, but the new hybrid stem sheet allows collection of both natural and planted on one sheet, achieving the goal of simplicity which we were after.

Original Bugzilla ID was 2863