Summer on a Shoestring

~Kelsey and Hyun-Jung hugging a large White Ash tree at the end of a day in the field

The field crew has been busy this summer working on various projects both in the field and in the lab.  One of the bigger projects we are working on this summer is to inventory the set of chronosequence stands spread all across the White Mountains.   Several of these stands have a long history of field studies dating back to the 1950’s.  Starting in 1994 the stands were inventoried and have been done every nine years since.  The time has come around again for another cycle of inventory and after this year we will have 18 years of data.  The inventory process involves measuring DBH of trees along with counting seedlings and germinates.  Each stand has five transect lines and all trees ten cm and greater within five meters of the transect are measured an identified.  Smaller trees and seedlings are inventoried in subplots along the transect.   So far this summer we have inventoried five stands and have nine more to do.  After finishing work the other day the crew found this huge white ash tree just outside the stand.  We were so excited we had to measure it.  The DBH was 93.1 cm!  In the picture Kelsey and Hyun-Jung could not touch hands reaching around the tree.

~ Adam Wild