1908 Walter Bitterlich was born in Reutte, Austria.

He will invent Variable Plot Sampling, and the Relascope,

(among other things).

His father was a well known and well liked forester from the TIROL

Hunting is his fathers

responsibility, along with forestry - in the valley

holding the imperial hunting lodge.

Walter was descended from several generations of foresters,

and did practical forestry work in the Tyrolean Alps.

(Hunting, Tirol, 1941)

Heads were mounted on his Salzburg home.

• Walter served on the Russian Front, (received an Iron Cross, 1st class) encircled twice (one by Russians, once by the US), was wounded, and sent back to Normandy to “recover” …

• just in time for the D-day invasion.

• Even during these years he was inventing.

He imagined chasing planes with drones

And planting aerial mines

His drone – much like the B2 stealth

A top view of the drone

They are to attack the sound of the plane

Sensor hexagons will locate the sound

Sound location by rings of Hexagons

The war bureaucracy delays – of course

Walter’s hexagons are later applied to trees

Blue trees change size and become an average (red) size,

with average areas around them.

From his book The Relascope Idea

Tenneck 1946 (Father) Zell am See 1949 (Son)

Walter the Athlete, and his son

The Ice Dancer, ages 70-95

At age 95 he could no longer

lie to the potential

partners about his age

(as if he would ever fall …)

Walter Bitterlich: (1953)

The Thinker

who produced “Variable Plot”

or “Angle-Count” Sampling.

I met him in 1970

A fictional account of his life as “Forestmeister

Gibrect”

Walter’s book belittles measuring every tree, which

he had to do.

He wanted to sample.

Walter’s personal

Permanent Sample Plot

in the middle of Salzburg.

(Bell, Hesske, Iles, Bitterlich - 1988)

His 80th birthday, at the field site of his first work

80th birthday, in 1988, his 3 Relascopes

CIF print

(1988) Walter – the alps (Blühnbachtal)

Karl Pacher, Ilse und Walter Bitterlich

Ilse

Above the Blünbach Valley - site of Emperor’s hunting lodge

Salzburg Castle, near the Bitterlich home

Equation : Basal area = count (on house)

Now being removed.

Stag Heads are gone too.

His friend Benno Hesske, who manufactures the Relascope

From HesskeThe view from Benno’s Home

Bitterlich’s Workshop,

after he moved to Reutte

Tools

BAIRegression using an analogue device

His famous target for

Angle-count sampling

The evolution of the Relascope

Dave Bruce, who invented the wedge prism, with the original wooden Relascope.

An optical fork – reading diameters at unknown distances, at any angle – later removed.

Read DBH

Dave Bruce, who invented the wedge prism, with the original wooden Relascope.

The modern wide-scale Relasope

Painting draft,

expanding VP Sampling

into 3 dimensions,

(direct volume)

Kitamura (1st) and Iles (later)

Final CH painting,

by Bitterlich,in forest museum

The 4th dimension (for growth over time)“Critical Increment” (PSPs)

Critical Height model

Patented teaching demonstration for Angle-count sampling, Critical Height Sampling, and the Iles method (growth over time).

Walters corner of the Forest Museum, Reutte

• Walter dies 10 days before his 100th birthday …

Matisse and Monet were still painting in Paris at his birth.

He has witnessed the beginning of : The age of radio, television, automobiles, air travel.

The space age, The jazz age.

2 world wars (losing side), 1 depression.

The calculator (and computer).

The end of Fixed Plot Sampling. ( thank God !! )

He is buried in Reutte, Austria

Bitterlich family Brunch, before funeral

Daughter Helga Bitterlich, and sons

Reutte, Feb 19, 2008 (his birthday)

3 of Walter’s 4 Children, at his birthplace in Reutte

Salzburg marble

• Returning to Canada

Kim’s Library

My favorite Photo

Kim, sitting at the feet of

Walter Bitterlich.

Stop by for a glass of sherry sometime …

Walter Bitterlich

1908 – 2008

99.97% completion rate on one

century.

He was an original

End