And back we go to the classroom.
In the afternoon, John presented an overview of forest ecology, including plant physiology, at our classroom in Canyonville Middle School library.
Now it's Tuesday, and John Punches (with assistance from Jim Lee of the Douglas Soil and Water Conservation District) is leading upland inventory work on a BLM-managed forest near the ACCF site. This forest has never been harvested, so it offers an excellent comparison with the ACCF site and many other forests on the watershed.
Much of our time is spent learning the basic tools used to conduct an inventory, including compasses.
The BLM forest has many older trees; the larger ones are Douglas-fir and there are some smaller (but old) incense cedar as well.
A clinometer can be used to measure slope, as well as to estimate the height of trees.
Here John is examining a core sample of a tree to determine its age and growth patterns.
This is the instrument John used to obtain the core sample.
Scott and Dave were a heck of an inventory team!
Here John is examining a core of an incense cedar of approximately 10 inches diameter at breast height. How old do you think it is? He estimated 150 years!! A very slow-growing tree.
It grew so slowly that John had to use a hand lens to count the annual rings.
Here Jim Long prepares to measure tree diameter using a special stick.
