On Monday, Kathy, Caroline and I were tasked to check on the first fire that we went to. We checked for missed hot spots and warm areas. We found one ember and one warm spot. We easily dug these out and mixed it with the damp cold soil that was left from all the water we sprayed on the fire. After that, it was stocking surveys for the rest of the day. We saw a deer as we were leaving one of our units and that was fun.
Anthony Cafferata
On Tuesday, the three of us went out to do a few 3-year surveys. In general, at Starker Forests, we do stocking surveys of trees when they are 2 years and 4 years. The reason we did these 3-year surveys was because Stephen was worried that the heat was hard on the trees. They were close to each other, so the heat must have been bad in that area. It was interesting though because I visited a unit I surveyed last year and a unit that Caroline and Emily (intern from last year) surveyed. So, I saw some of the flagging from the previous survey at my plots.
It was pretty steep in the 3-year unit.
When we got back to the office, we cleaned the storm drain that is at the truck washing spot. There was so much sediment and dirt in the drain that the water barely drained. We removed the grate with some difficulty. We tried just lifting it, no luck. We tried hauling it out with a truck, no luck. Only when Kathy finished scraping out the concrete from the edges and Caroline was using a pry bar that was taller than herself, did we finally get the grate out of the ground. We then used fire tools to scoop the goop into buckets and shuttle it to a place where it wouldn’t be a problem.
On Wednesday, the crew was split into two groups. Wyatt, Daniel, Jamie and Jace learned stream surveys with Reece and the rest of us went to a unit outside of Newport called ANE Pools. Caroline, Kathy, Gus and I surveyed this unit, which was I think 116 acres. We finished it just in time for lunch and made our way to a western hemlock progeny site (research plot) where we looked for dead trees and trees that were replaced with Douglas-fir by Stephen. We recorded these instances in a spreadsheet where all the trees that are being studied have numbers and we would just change the background color to indicate dead tree or Douglas-fir.
Thursday and Friday I did stream surveys. Sage taught us on Thursday while Reece supervised. She did such a good job!
I always enjoy these surveys because we walk around the forest looking for the stream, but I am always looking for interesting things, critters, trees, rocks, mushrooms, you name it. This time, we found a snake, newt, small water features, and a cool mushroom. I cannot include all my pictures unfortunately, but I assure you they were all fun to find.
Anthony’s cool mushroom find. Gus with a garter snake. Jace with a rough-skinned newt.
Friday evening was Forestry Night for the Corvallis Knights Baseball team, sponsored by Starker Forests, and we all got the opportunity to watch the game in the Omaha room. There were burgers, hotdogs, drinks and chips to eat while the game went on. Wyatt, Daniel, Gabe and I got a picture with one of the mascots.
We had a great time and the Knights won, to top it all off!
Anthony, Wyatt, Daniel and Gabe with Lil’ King at the Corvallis Knights game.
This week was fun, but I must mention that Kathy’s last day was Wednesday. She will be missed at Starker Forests for sure.
— Anthony Cafferata