This week at Starker Forests was yet another exciting one. On Monday, Jace, Anthony, and I journeyed to Nashville and dedicated the entire day to conducting stream surveys. In total, we surveyed six streams, and it was a productive day. We were treated to stunning views of the SSBT (Salmon, Steelhead, Bull Trout) stream nestled at the base of the unit.
Jamie Gassner
A beautiful salmon, steelhead, bull trout stream in Nashville.
On Tuesday, our entire team embarked on a trip to the coast to wrap up check cruising on a unit slated for logging. I shadowed Reece throughout the day as we inspected the stream buffers previously marked by the crew, making necessary adjustments along the way.
One of the highlights of Tuesday was the discovery of a towering Spruce tree that Reece and I stumbled upon, with a Hemlock tree growing from its side.
We dedicated the remainder of our day to check cruising plots that had been surveyed by other crew members before us. During this process, we meticulously cross-referenced our findings with the data collected by the previous cruisers, ensuring accuracy in tree count, species, diameter at breast height, height and defects.
Wednesday took us to the Buttermilk area, where Jace, Caroline and I delved into a series of stream surveys. It was a delightful day filled with numerous streams awaiting our inspection. The camaraderie with Caroline and Jace made the time fly by.
It’s never a dull moment working with Caroline.
As the day drew to a close, a sudden encounter with hornets added an unexpected thrill. In the ensuing chaos, I ended up getting stung twice, while Jace and Caroline managed to escape unscathed.
Thursday saw Caroline and me setting out to the Bellfountain area to conduct cruising in a thinned unit. En route, we paused to greet a group of turkeys leisurely lingering by the roadside.
This was my first time cruising timber with Caroline, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together. However, midway through the day, I encountered a group of yellow jackets and unfortunately received two more stings. From that moment on, I jokingly cautioned my colleagues about my “unfortunate bee luck” for the week.
Friday wrapped up with me and Jace heading back out to Bellfountain with Lys, to check cruise all of the cruising that we had done on Thursday. This day was especially interesting because Lys brought us back to the office when we were done and guided us through the process of inputting our cruise data into the system, demonstrating how the computer calculates the total volume of the stand based on our gathered data.
Overall, it was a diverse week of work, with more fun coming next week!
— Jamie Gassner