Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Timber Cruising

Cruising is the process of measuring forest stands to determine stand characteristics, such as average tree sizes, volume, and quality. The primary purpose of cruising is to obtain a volume estimation to appraise and prepare timber sales. We provide technical expertise in statistical sampling, measurement protocols, and volume estimation procedures. We provide cruising software, documents, training, and technical support.

The National Cruise System is a set of software tools developed for timber cruisers to design a timber cruise, collect timber cruise data, and produce statistically defensible volume estimates for timber sale contracts.

For all desktop cruise applications, Forest Service users should install using the Software Center application.

Current Software

The latest generation of cruising software, also know as Version 3 (V3) brings FScruiser's mobile data collection capabilities to the Android operating system. Version 3 uses a new file format (.crz3). Although some of the applications from the previous generation support both cruise file formats, the new version of FScruiser only supports the new file format. Users switching to Version 3 should wait until they are starting a new cruise to transition.

View the National Cruise System Introduction presentation: PDF, 184 KB

FScruiser is the field data collection application for the the National Cruise System suite of applications. The latest version of FScruiser (V3) run on Android devices.

FScruiser currently supports the cruise methods outlined in the Timber Cruising Handbook (see FSH 2409.12), including fixed plot, fixed count-measure, point sampling, point count-measure, sample tree, classical 3P, fixed plot-3P, point-3P, 3P-point, and sample tree-3P.

Version 3 (Current)

The latest version of FScruiser run on Android devices and is available from the Google Play Store. Unlike previous versions of FScruiser there is no desktop version of FScruiser.

Version 2 (Legacy)

Version 2 of FScruiser is availible for both Windows Mobile and Windows Desktop.

The Cruise Processing V2 (Version 2) program is similar to the previous version of the program. Most of the functionality has been maintained and several new features are included such as the ability to produce graphs, modify weight factors, modify merchantability rules for the sale, and ability to create PDF files. Biomass is now calculated using the National Biomass Estimator Library (NBEL).

Designing an efficient cruise (selecting sampling methods and determining sample sizes across multiple populations to meet a specific sale error) can be a confusing and time consuming process. The Cruise Design V2 (Version 2) Program provides an interactive approach to cruise design by allowing a cruiser to examine different sampling methods across different populations in a relatively short period of time.

 

Legacy Software

The legacy Version 2 (V2) software will continue to be supported while transitioning to V3 until December of 2023. Some of the applications that are also being used in V3, such as Cruise Processing and Cruise Design, will continue to be supported past that the end of V2 support.

Cruise Manager is used to establish new sales, customize data entry forms, and handle general data management issues like creating and merging component cruises, modifying cruise designs, and handling data integrity checks.

Designing an efficient cruise (selecting sampling methods and determining sample sizes across multiple populations to meet a specific sale error) can be a confusing and time consuming process. The Cruise Design Program provides an interactive approach to cruise design by allowing a cruiser to examine different sampling methods across different populations in a relatively short period of time.