Hi! I’m Caroline Puckett and this is my third year as an intern at Starker Forest. Last year I opted to not to write a blog so I could focus more on the work but honestly this week was way too cool to not have someone write about it!
Monday-
Today was the start of the week and we (Eliana and I) went right into cruising at a unit called Swamp Complex. Despite its name, it was actually a pretty cool unit and had some pretty easy walking. I’ve been so grateful with how much cruising we’ve been able to do this year compared to the last two years. We only had a handful of plots left to finish up from Friday so we also got to go and help start the last section of a unit called Bedell slopes. We only got a few done but we were also able to choose a BAF that we felt comfortable using for the entire stand.
Tuesday-
We completed switched it up today and drove out to Norton Hill tree farm to a bridge called Nielsen Bridge.
Caroline getting ready to demolish Nielsen Bridge.
We then spent the entire day demoing it down to the metal base. This meant we had to take these huge spikes out to remove the wood. To start, we used crow bars as big as me and some mallets to dig underneath the spikes and then used all of our body weight and more to try and pull them out. We did that for a few hours before we ended up finding a much more efficient way to remove them. So we ended the day with a completely cleared bridge and with some sore muscles.
Wednesday-
Back to the bridge! I think I may have been the only one looking forward to coming back out here today but I was very excited to see the bridge come back together. I also am the only intern not afraid of heights. The boards we were bringing out today were even heavier than the ones we moved off yesterday so it was a bit of an adjustment. We also had to be very careful that we were putting enough support and following all the forest rules. This meant we put a lot more wood onto the bridge than we took off.
Thursday-
The week is already more than half way over, surprisingly, and we were back to cruising! I was sent with Jake and Eliana out towards the coast to a unit called Pioneer Ice Salvage. Most of the units are named after aspects of the stand itself. This one had been hit by a lot of ice damage during a storm, which forced Reece to have it thinned earlier than planned. We only got a couple plots done because we started the morning with a “smaller” task Stephen had sent us to get done. He had us buy a couple of these thick rolls of black tarp to tarp the future burn piles at the unit. We ended up getting 21 done before we ran out of tarp.
Friday-
Once again, today was a new day and we got a different thing to do at work. Today we started stream surveys! Jake and Jazelle had gotten a head start on seeing what they’d look like when they went with Reece a couple weeks ago, so they both knew a little bit about what they were doing. Unfortunately, Jazelle was out so that left Jake with the opportunity to join me as we did our first full day of them.
Stream surveys is one of those things that is a bit more climbing through brush and less standing around at plot,. You’re constantly moving and flagging as you go. This is the first thing we’ve done this summer that needs a GPS unit. The GPS allows us to get a precise location of the flowing water and/or the stream beds.
Similar to cruising and stocking surveys, it is extremely important that we get proper information. This process helps determine where Starker needs to leave buffers when a unit is harvested
Overall, this has been a really good week and I’m so glad to be able to continue to learn from all the foresters and staff at starker this summer.
— Caroline Puckett