Department of Forestry
 

Harold Burkhart - University Distinguished Professor and Department Head

Research Projects

  • Cooperative Research Program in Growth and Yield of Managed Stands of Loblolly Pine (Twelve industrial forestry firms plus Virginia Department of Forestry and USDA Forest Service, 1979-present): The objective of this Cooperative is to develop loblolly pine tree growth and stand development models sufficiently flexible to account for the effects of intensive cultural practices, with output sufficiently detailed to allow for analyses of a full range of utilization options. The Cooperative maintains three large field studies: (1) a set of designed spacing trials, (2) a region-wide set of growth plots in intensively managed plantations, and (3) two pruning experiments.

Teaching Responsibilities

  • FOR 5224 Forest Biometry

Selected Recent Publications

  • VanderSchaaf, C.L. and H. E. Burkhart. 2008. Using segmented regression to estimate stages and phases of stand development. For. Sci. 54:167-175.
  • Sharma, M., H. E. Burkhart and R. L. Amateis. 2007. Scaling taper relationships from miniature-scale to operational-scale stands of loblolly pine. For. Sci. 53: 611-617.
  • Trincado, G., C. L. VanderSchaaf and H. E. Burkhart. 2007. Regional mixed-effects height-diameter models for loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) plantations. Eur. J. For. Res. 126: 253-262.
  • VanderSchaaf, C. L. and H. E. Burkhart. 2007. Comparison of methods to estimate Reineke's maximum size-density relationship species boundary line slope. For. Sci. 53:435-442.
  • Amateis, R. L., S. P. Prisley, H. E. Burkhart, and J. Liu. 2006. The effect of physiographic region and geographic locale on predicting the dominant height and basal area of loblolly pine plantations. South. J. Appl. For. 30:147-153.
  • Dieguez-Aranda, U., H. E. Burkhart and R. L. Amateis. 2006. Dominant height growth of unthinned loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) plantations in the United States. For. Sci. 52:262-272.
  • Sharma, M., M. Smith, H. E. Burkhart and R. L. Amateis. 2006. Modeling the impact of thinning on height development of dominant and condominant loblolly pine trees. Ann. For. Sci. 63:349-354.
  • Trincado, G. and H. E. Burkhart. 2006. A generalized approach for modeling and localizing stem profile curves. For. Sci. 52:670-682.
  • Amateis, R. L. and H. E. Burkhart. 2005. Estimating the proporation of peeler, sawtimber and pulpwood trees in loblolly pine plantations. South. J. Appl. For. 29:158-162.
  • Bullock, B. P. and H. E. Burkhart. 2005. An evaluation of spatial dependency in juvenile loblolly pine stands using stem diameter. For. Sci. 51:102-108.
  • Bullock, B. P. and H. E. Burkhart. 2005. Juvenile diameter distributions of loblolly pine characterized by the two parameter Weibull function. New Forests 29:233-244.
  • Dieguez-Aranda, U., H. E. Burkhart and R. Rodriguez-Soalleiro. 2005. Modeling dominant height growth of radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) plantations in north-western Spain. For. Ecol. & Manage. 215:271-284.
  • Radtke, P. J., S. P. Prisley, R. L. Amateis, C. A. Copenheaver and H. E. Burkhart 2004. A proposed model for deadwood C production and decay in loblolly pine plantations. Env. Mgmt. 33:S56-S64.
  • Westfall, J.A., H.E. Burkhart and H.L. Allen. 2004. Young stand growth modeling for intensively-managed loblolly pine plantations in Southeastern U.S. For. Sci. 50:823-835.
  • Amateis, R. L., M. Sharma and H. E. Burkhart. 2003. Using miniature-scale plantations as experimental tools for assessing sustainability issues. Can. J. For. Res. 33:450-454.
  • Amateis, R. L., M. Sharma and H. E. Burkhart. 2003. Scaling growth relationships from seedling plots using similarity analysis. For. Sci. 49:188-195.
  • Bullock, B. P. and H. E. Burkhart. 2003. Equations for predicting green weight of loblolly pine trees in the South. South. J. Appl. For. 27:153-159.
  • Burkhart, H. E. 2003. Assessing the sustainability of plantation management. Forest Landowner 62(2):18-21.
  • Radtke, P. J., J. A. Westfall and H. E. Burkhart. 2003. Conditioning a distance-dependent competition index to indicate the onset of inter-tree competition. For. Ecol. and Manage. 175:17-30.
  • Sharma, M. and H. E. Burkhart. 2003. Selecting a level of conditioning for the segmented polynomial taper equation. Forest Sci. 49:324-330.
  • Sharma, M., R. L. Amateis and H. E. Burkhart. 2003. Forest dynamics and similarity theory. Ecol. Modelling 167:165-180.
  • Avery, T. E. and H. E. Burkhart. 2002. Forest Measurements. 5th Ed. McGraw-Hill, New York. 456 p.

Professional Achievements

  • Served as Chairman, Blue Ridge Chapter; Chairman, Virginia Division; Regional Technology Coordinator; Chairman, Biometrics Working Group; Member of various committees, SAF
  • Leader, IUFRO S4.01 Mensuration, Growth and Yield; Deputy Leader, IUFRO Division 4; Deputy Leader S4.11 Statistical Methods, Mathematics and Computers
  • Past Editor of Southern Journal of Applied Forestry and Forest Science
  • International Union of Forestry Research Organizations Scientific Achievement Award
  • J. Shelton Horsley Research Award, Virginia Academy of Science
  • Virginia Tech Alumni Award for Research Excellence
  • State Council of Higher Education for Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award
  • Distinguished Service to Forestry Award, Appalachian SAF
  • Barrington Moore Memorial Award, SAF
  • Distinguished Agriculture Alumnus Award, Oklahoma State University
  • Distinguished Statistical Ecologist Award, INTECOL
  • Elected a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society of American Foresters