The setting for this scene is in the Mount Hood National Forest in the Cascade Mountain Range east of Portland, Oregon. A forester in the Mount Hood National Forest measures the diameter of a tree on Rhododendron Ridge at the headwaters of the Clackamas River drainage of Oregon. Snowcapped Mount Hood is in the background. She is using a "diameter tape," a flexible steel-bladed measuring tape which converts circumference to diameter.

When the profession of forestry began in the United States the "D" tape was already an old tool in European forestry. It is still used today even though modern tools such as computers, lasers, and satellite photos are also part of the forester's toolbox. Since the founding of the Society of American Foresters in 1900, foresters and their partners in other professions have managed our nation's forests to meet the ever-changing needs of society for wood, wildlife, fish, water, and recreation.