Apparatus for measuring and recording a tree characteristic

A measurement apparatus for measuring a characteristic of a tree comprising:

• (a) a frame;
• (b) a measurement head carried by said frame and having a caliper with a pair of jaws for enabling measurement of the diameter of a tree located between said jaws;
• (c) a support handle carried by said frame and having a handle grip for being grasped by a hand of an operator;
• (d) an extension wand carried by said frame and joining said measurement head to said support handle, said wand having a length suitable to enable measurement of tree diameter to be performed while said operator is standing up, said measurement head obtusely and adjustably angled relative to said wand;
• (e) a computer carried by said frame and in communication with said caliper for determining the distance between said caliper jaws for enabling the diameter of a tree between said jaws to be determined;
• (f) a memory in communication with said computer for selectively storing tree diameter;
• (g) a data entry input in communication with said computer with said data entry input carried by said support handle adjacent said handle grip and positioned to be within reach of a thumb or finger of said hand of said operator while said hand is grasping said handle grip.

A method of measurement a characteristic of a tree comprising:

• (a) providing a frame having a support handle for being grasped by an operator, a measurement head for measuring the tree characteristic, a wand operably connecting the measurement head to the support handle, a computer carried by the frame, a memory in communication with the computer for storing tree characteristic data, a display carried by the frame capable of displaying alphanumeric characters, an input device in communication with the computer having a first input enabling data to be selected and a second input enabling data to be stored in memory;
• (b) selecting the location of a tree being measured;
• (c) selecting the variety of the tree being measured;
• (d) storing to memory the selected location data entry and variety data entry;
• (e) selecting a grade of the tree being measured;
• (f) measuring the characteristic of the tree;
• and
• (g) storing the grade data and characteristic measured data in memory.

An apparatus for measuring a diameter of a tree comprising:

• (a) a support handle having a portion that can be grasped by a human operator;
• (b) a caliper having a pair of opposed jaws with one of said jaws movable relative to the other of said jaws;
• (c) an extension wand connected adjacent one end to said support handle and connected adjacent an opposite end to said caliper;
• (d) a movable control handle carried by one of said support handle and said extension wand;
• (e) a flexible motion transmitter connecting said movable control handle to said movable jaw for translating motion of said movable control handle into movement of said movable jaw;
• (f) a vernier 1) having a plurality of spaced apart slots and 2) that moves substantially in unison with said movable jaw;
• (g) a slot sensor that senses movement of said vernier by sensing said slots in said vernier and outputting a signal;
• (h) a computer connected to said slot sensor for receiving said signal and determining from said signal how far said movable jaw is located from the other said jaw.

An apparatus for measuring a characteristic of a tree comprising:

• (a) a support handle having a portion that can be grasped by an operator of the apparatus;
• (b) a measurement head operably connected to said support handle for measuring a characteristic of a tree;
• (c) an extension wand operably connecting said measurement head to said support handle;
• and
• (d) a control handle carried by said wand remote from said measurement head to facilitate maneuvering said measurement head relative to a tree whose characteristic is being measured while said operator is standing.