Plant Identification Week

Goats beard 

Daubenmire Frame work

Each oil pad site we visit has a unique plant community. Surely, the sites share some commonality, but like with people they can be told apart.  For instance there is one site where we find a variety of mint another with milkweed, and yet another is dominated by native Poverty Oak grass.  I share these observations with you since our field work this week was focused on gathering vegetation data of our 10 sites.  

Finding the bearing

Once on location the first task is to lay out the eight transects.  This requires some orienteering and spacial observational skills to realize if you have not found the correct bearing.   Once the transects are laid the team goes to work identifying and estimating the coverage of each species found in the subplots along with estimating a density of trees and shrubs found along the transects. Each site takes somewhere between 2 and 3 hours to complete.  

Grass hopper 

Spotted Knapweed

Reflecting back on the week having a reference point and setting a compass is critical to leading where you want to go.  How often in life do we forget to keep our reference in mind and wonder from the straight and narrow?  In walking just 50 meters it is easy to stray 1 meter to either the left or the right… imagine if the distance is longer or in our case considering our life days, months, and years.  What is your bearing? Is it changing or is it found in the one that does not change? 

Milkweed

Are you Growing?

What kind of soil are you planted in? Are you in fertile soil, full of the necessary nutrients and moisture to grow and develop? Do you find yourself barely seeing above the circumstances of your life?  As I scan the plot for the next sapling these are the kinds of questions that run through my mind.  The quiet solitude of measuring and monitoring the saplings provides plenty of time to think.  

Replanting

Friday began with replanting several Jack Pine and Red Oak.  They had been pulled out most likely by a curious porcupine who thought chewing the metal tags was a good idea.  Given that the trees had died because they were pulled up because of the tags and not just death because of the conditions we made the choice to replant them.  We shall see at the end of July how they are doing.

Our second site nicely illustrated the impact of nutrients on plant growth.  In the area where nutrients were applied the timothy and other grasses were at least 5 to 10 inches taller than the samplings.  In the areas where competition had been reduced by using a tiller the trees were just about as tall as the new weed and grass growth. We were thankful to have a metal detector to help locate the hard to find trees in the thick grass.  

First Tree Mortality

This day was especially nice, with a gentle breeze blowing for most of the morning. As the sun grew in intensity the heat radiating off the primarily sandy soil only served as a reminder of the challenge of new growth on these sites.  Of course we know that growth is not impossible in these areas as we see plenty of grasses growing all around our plots.  Off in the distance we see pine forest and are reminded that the system we stand in is a result of human use.  Even in driving to these sites we are constantly reminded that our research is just as much because of our consumption of oil and gas as anyone else on the Earth. This reality keeps us humble.

Deer Tracks leading to
the dead Red Oak

We observed our first Deer caused mortality.  Tracks led right up to the location of a red oak and the tree had been pulled out of the grown and dropped about 10 feet from its original location.  The top of the sapling had been nibbled off and the rest of the woody material left on the sandy soil.

 Back to the original question of today's post ~ Soil ~ something that can be rejuvenated or depleted ~ cared for or abused.  We each have been planted, into families, communities, and geographically.  One neat thing about being in Northern Michigan is seeing how lush a northern hardwood forest can be, and yet remembering that it has similar soils to the sites where we are working.  The main difference is that over time a forest has developed and leaf liter each year falls to the grown, rots, and provides back needed nutrients to sustain life.  The shade of the taller trees keeps the soil cooler and new life can grow up in the understory.  This provides an analogy to growing up in a community.  Those older than us provide a microclimate hopefully conducive to our growth and development. In time we will become those older ones.  Of course, I don't think trees ever grown to appreciate the services the older more mature vegetation provide them with, however, we as humans can and should be thankful for those people in our lives who have been used to help us mature.  We were never meant to be a singular "tree" planted in a field but "trees" planted in community along streams of living water!

Enjoy a "taste" of our day 

   

The Unexpected

Spittle bug spittle 

The initial plan for today was changed when we realized we were without a vehicle  for a second day.  Off we went to our site three miles from campus on Phlum Road. We were dropped off by two staff members who were on their way to pick up a car for our team from Traverse City!

The morning sun was warm and quickly dried the dew from the tall grass.  There were a plethora of spittle bugs on this site.  Several times we found ourselves with unexpected wet hands. We were blessed today with a fourth helper who assisted with recording our data.  With this additional help we were able to complete our morning site in 2.5 hours.  At this point we started walking back to campus. 

TransCanada Pipeline Sign
Just beyond our morning site

After a scrumptious lunch we loaded up in the Au Sable new 2008 forester and headed for our site located just north of Waters.  The forecast was 0% rain, we left confident - but prepared for a shower.  With just a few trees left to measure the heavens oped up and the rain began to fall. Interestingly enough all afternoon we watched much darker clouds pass just to our south. However, with the change in the situation we  quickly jumped into our rain gear to complete the site.  The Timothy grass in our last area was 2.5 feet high and one small red pine was not located it appears we may have our first tree mortality.      

Tomorrow we shall travel to Boardman and complete the first round of Survival data.  We are even going to meet with a reporter.  Let the adventures continue!

Reacquainted

Our team headed out to Sand Lake Road, just a few miles from the Au Sable campus, this early morning to begin a full day of tree measuring.  Since there are so many research projects going on and the rest of the students were on an Integrative Session to Sleeping Bear Dunes, we were dropped off at our site and without a vehicle for the day. We were thankful for a little cell service to communicate with our transportation helper.

There is a sort of fondness that grows between a researcher and their sites.  Quickly memories returned regarding this site, as it was the first one I visited last year.  After a lesson on how the data sheet was organized and the procedure for measuring the height and diameter of the trees we all buckled down and got to work!  Not very long into measuring and finding trees, Caleb was surprised by a very large (1.5 - 2 inch diameter) Hog nose snake.  At the time we did not know that was the kind and we all decided it best to work in the other areas and hope it would move on before we were done.  

Can you find the tree? 

Handy Metal Detector

For today, Caleb and Anna Marie worked on monitoring the Oak species and I was delegated to the Jack and Red pines.  To give you an idea the tallest tree recorded was 33 centimeters and there were many times when the grasses and ferns in the field were much taller than the trees!  Fortunately, each tree has a metal take identifying it's site, treatment, species, and individual number this allowed us to use a metal detector to assist us in locating those which were under the tall ferns.

As we each worked it was very quite in the field. In the distance was the constant sound of a grasshopper oil rig. A constant reminder of the importance of this research to find the best way for companies to go about reforesting their sites, once they are finished extracting the mineral resources ~ in this case oil. The trees have produced a fair amount of pollen.  It was very noticeable in the morning light while walking through the grass the pollen would fall off on contact. A special moment occurred when a flicker swooped into our site to look playfully for  insects to consume.  

Looks a bit like the beach...

Red Pine 

Many if not most of the trees at our first site looked healthy.  That was not the case for our second site after lunch, where many of the Pine species were all brown... we are holding out hope that maybe they are not dead ~ time will tell.  The second site appeared very sandy, even in one of the treatments that was not tilled the vegetation was quite space and the sand was very hot in the afternoon sun.

The team was very happy to complete two sites today ~ As a whole we measured 800 trees!

Tomorrow our goal is to finish up the sites in the Boardman River area. We shall see!

                 

                          These signs are located at each site to inform the public about the project

Summer 2015 Adventure Begins - Trust or Worry... you decide!

Au Sable Welcome!

The alarm sounds and the early morning light is peaking up over the trees in the field.  Finally the time to awake has arrived. The quite sound of feet can be heard throughout the house.  After a quick breakfast were were off to the airport 5:15.  Reflecting back on how God has orchestrated the plan for this summer I am reminded how He knows the desires of our hearts even more than we do and always has a plan that is much better than any I could construct!  For that I am quite thankful.

Approaching Philly

After a quick good-bye from Diane off I strolled into the Airport.  The first choice of the day came quite quickly... your flight to Chicago is canceled... hmm... what it is the best way to deal with this sort of set back?  The lady worked to see if there were any other options for getting me to Traverse City.  Not a surprise, there was one seat left on an US airline flight to Philly.  She figured there was just enough time for me to get to Philly, then to Detroit, and finally to Traverse City! A new confirmation number was given and off I went to the US airline kiosk to print some new boarding passes.

Lake Erie - approaching Detroit

The flight to Philly was uneventful and after a few minute walk to the next gate, the usually dreaded sign DELAYED flashed across the screen.  Once again a choice... trust... or worry... I chose trust.  The DELAY continued to increase in time and several people were getting nervous about the connecting flight to Traverse.  The very helpful attendant assured us there was a second flight later in the afternoon if we missed the first.  With this information I settled in with C.S Lewis and Screwtape Letters.  We left Philly and arrived in Detroit at 12:05, the Traverse flight was scheduled to leave at 12:01.  The two other travelers heading to Traverse asked if I would run ahead and see if we could catch the flight.  So off it was to the races, fortunately we were already at A3 and just had to get to A33.  The people were just starting to board!

In the end today was a lesson in the blessing of trust and not worrying about things that are really out of our control.  How many situations in life do we let drag us down and make us very unpleasant?