I woke up shivering today, at 3:45 AM, to a monster gust of 40-degree air that blew through my sleeping bag. Let's just say that the weather app lies. I rolled over and waited for the day to warm up. After a cold night, I bushwhacked (literally, I use my walking stick like a machete) up to site B15, which had a crazy 4 stem canopy red maple, and a lot of beech. Beech sites are a menace because dense regeneration is difficult to move through, and managing a measuring tape, the string for the site radius, and a clipboard is a bit much.
Afterwards, I headed back for lunch, and then drove up Meadowlark to tackle two sites with crazy regeneration with Laura and Isabel. Walking to the sites, we encountered textbook exit holes for Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive that is decimating ash trees. Photos are below. In total, I15 and I14 had over 100 trees combined as result of previous logging. Notably, there were some notable species regenerating, like red oak and bigtooth aspen, as well as a few doomed ash trees.
Tomorow, I'm going back up to B14 and B13, working my way down from the top of the grid. So far, I've worked 50 hours, or 2/3 of my hours. Oh right, pictures:
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| The incredible four stem red oak. This photo was taken using my fisheye lens. |
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| Textbook Emerald Ash Borer exit hole |
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| This is blonding, or dead bark as a result of Emerald Ash Borer |
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| This is not Emerald Ash Borer. It's just a cool bug. |
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| I appreciate the meme, Laura. Now everyone will see it. |
That bug is cool b/c it is a tiger beetle! Which IS the micro equivalent of a T.Rex for the beetle world. Voracious, determined, and effective predator of other insects. Also your blog post rocks... again. Great work Matt!
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