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