This week at Starker we finished up our stocking surveys for 2-year and 4-year stands. All of us interns had some pretty steep slopes on Monday and a few of us, myself included, took a few fun tumbles.
On Tuesday we started learning about cruising! Yay! Fred and Lys took all of us out to a recently thinned stand to get the basics down on how to use all of the equipment and become comfortable with it. We each practiced a few plots on our own and had our data checked by Fred, Lys and myself. Yesterday (Wednesday), we got to practice cruising in some larger timber, a site very different from the younger, thinned site we were in Tuesday.
It has been fun for me to come back to cruising after doing it on my own a little while ago. I was thankful for the refresher on how to identify defects in trees, as well as practicing heights with the laser. I think so far everyone is doing well; today the six of us (in pairs) got through 37 plots with time to spare. Everyone has been patient and supportive of each other as well, so I’m happy to say that I’m proud of this year’s interns. My guess is that we will be cruising more and more as this summer goes on, I can’t wait to see everyone improve!
-Nic Haye