This week, Natalie, Marshal and I continued with our surveys of some 20-year-old stands. We spent Monday and Tuesday over by Norton Hill. Even though there were some steep slopes, we got to see some beautiful sights of the surrounding forests. The sun shining through the fog on Tuesday morning was a sight to behold.
On Wednesday, Fred and Lys gave us a fun new project to start. It involves going into a (nearly) 40-year-old stand in our Alexander Schoolhouse Tree Farm that has not yet been thinned and teaching us how to best choose and mark trees to be thinned in the upcoming weeks. They said that this will be the only thin they do in this stand until the final harvest in about 30 years. After we go in and mark everything deemed necessary, they’re going to have us go back and cruise the same stand to see if we met our goal in tree density after the thin. I know myself and the rest of the interns are excited to be getting more hands-on experience with real silviculture decision making. We get to choose which trees will stay, and which will grow another 3 decades, how cool is that?
We’ll probably finish marking the trees to be thinned Friday, and will hopefully go back in to cruise on Tuesday after a restful Labor Day weekend. Can’t wait!
– Nic Haye