Walter Bitterlich was a world-renowned forest scientist. A notable contributions of his to the forestry profession was the invention of the relascope

Relascope

The relascope, invented by Walter Bitterlich, is a multi-use instrument for forest inventory. It is primarily used to find height of a tree, basal area of a tree and diameter of a tree anywhere along the bole...

 used in forest inventories

Forest inventory

Forest inventory is the systematic collection of data and forest information for assessment or analysis. It is also commonly known as timber cruising. It is important for owners to cruise the timber to get an estimate of the value and possible uses of the timber...

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Early Career

Bitterlich descended from several generations of foresters and did much of his early work in the Tyrolean Alps of Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

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Bitterlich served as part of the German army in Russia and Normandy during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and during this time considered how military thinking could be applied to forest trees.

Career

Bitterlich started his career as a forester in 1949. During this time, he published the method of angle-count sampling. Although these methods were not known until 1949, Bitterlich's diary documented these ideas as early as 1931.

Bitterlich designed many patents throughout his career, including the relascope, which are used today throughout many forest inventories worldwide.