Parsimonious and Completely Compatible Taper, Total, and Merchantable Volume Models

A parsimonious and compatible system of taper, total, and merchantable volume equations sharing a common vector of three parameter estimates was derived from Clark and Saucier’s (1990) volume ratio model. Clark and Saucier’s model expresses volume inside bark as a function of outside bark diameter and is itself not compatible with the derived taper equation. To ensure compatibility, models were fit to express volume outside bark as functions of diameter outside bark. By constraining the limits of integration of the taper function to go from the tip to groundline diameter, a completely compatible system of taper, total, and merchantable volume equations were developed. Systems of equations were fit using nonlinear seemingly unrelated regressions with nonlinear cross-equation constraints to account for contemporaneous correlations in the data. The system fit was found to account for at least 96% of the variation in diameter outside bark, total, and merchantable outside bark volume. FOR. SCI. 51(6):578–584.