California Registered Professional Forester (RPF) examination

USA · California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, Professional Foresters Registration · licensing · unverified source

23practice questions written to this syllabus
3subjects

Format

Unverified. Written examination taken after qualifying experience (education counts toward part of it); covers forest practice rules, silviculture, mensuration, protection and California law.

Sections

Over the years

Unverified: the Board's site refused automated reading. California requires an RPF to prepare timber harvesting plans.

Official source: https://bof.fire.ca.gov/

Subjects this exam draws on

Forest Surveying & Mapping3 questionsForest Mensuration14 questionsProfessional Forestry Practice, Ethics & Registration6 questions

Five practice questions, worked

Original questions written to this exam's published syllabus and pattern. Not past papers.

1. A boundary surveyed 50 years ago with magnetic bearings is to be retraced. Declination has changed by 4° since then. What must be done?

  1. Correct for the change in declination
  2. Use the old bearings exactly as recorded
  3. Add 180° to every recorded bearing
  4. Replace bearings with slope distances
Answer and working

A. Correct for the change in declination

Secular variation shifts magnetic north; uncorrected bearings lead off the original line, a common cause of disputes.

Forest Surveying & Mapping · Compass survey: bearings, declination, closing error

2. Under the US convention, breast height for dbh is:

  1. 4.5 ft (1.37 m), uphill side
  2. 4.0 ft (1.22 m) above ground on the downhill side
  3. 1.3 m above the root collar on the downhill side
  4. 5.0 ft (1.52 m) above ground on the uphill side
Answer and working

A. 4.5 ft (1.37 m), uphill side

The USA measures dbh at 4.5 ft, which is 1.37 m, from the uphill side. The 1.3 m height belongs to the metric convention used in most other countries.

Forest Mensuration · Diameter and girth measurement: breast height conventions, calipers, tapes

3. In the United States, licensing of foresters is carried out by:

  1. A single federal licence issued by the Forest Service
  2. The Society of American Foresters in every state
  3. State boards in certain states only
  4. Each county government separately
Answer and working

C. State boards in certain states only

Licensing or registration exists in some states only; SAF's Certified Forester is voluntary, not a licence.

Professional Forestry Practice, Ethics & Registration · Forestry as a profession: societies, regulators and titles

4. A form-class volume table is entered with:

  1. Dbh alone, read from one column
  2. Dbh and total height only
  3. Dbh, merchantable height and form class
  4. Age, site index and stand density
Answer and working

C. Dbh, merchantable height and form class

Form-class (three-entry) tables add form class to the two entries of a standard table. Age and site index enter yield tables, not tree volume tables.

Forest Mensuration · Volume tables: local, general and form-class; construction and use

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