Among the activities which compose a forest management system, harvest is the most expensive one, and when it is carried out without planning it causes severe damages to the forest structure. To perform low impact exploitation, that is, to minimize damages to natural regeneration and remaining trees, a detailed survey of the area to be managed must be done. The main objective of this work was to propose a new methodology of prospection survey with an arboreous mapping. In a unit of annual production of 24.25 ha, 2,707 arboreous individuals were surveyed, with DBH > 20 cm, and their data of quantitative and qualitative features, besides their geographic coordinates (UTM) were kept in a geographic referred database. The prospection survey analyses included the technical viability and the determination of cost of the proposed method. The prospection survey methodology, based on the use of digital equipment for distance measurement, showed to be technically feasible. The accuracy required in the determination of the position of the trees, as well as the relief conditions, dense understory and great presence of vines, influenced directly the prospection survey outcome, which were of 442 m per day for trail openings, and of 0.80 ha per day for the prospection survey carried out. The cost of trail opening and prospection survey were of US$35.69 and US$89.43 per hectare, respectively.
Atlantic Forest; submontane semideciduous seasonal forest; forest management; prospection survey; complete enumeration forest inventory
