Methods & Materials

I know you're all incredibly curious as to what exactly our research consists of, what I mean when I say "sampling plots". So I have chosen to use a series of photos of our equipment to describe just exactly what data we are collected and how we measure it, and then I'll explain the overall context and goals of the project.
Pictured left are our park radio and GPS. We utilize the GPS to locate the locations of the plots, usually hiking or driving near the location and then navigating via GPS to the exact (or fairly close) location. The park radio connects us to the rest of the park staff, allowing us to hear the goings on in the park and to radio in if we are in need of assistance. So far it has proven useful for hearing the weather forcast and we used it to assure a campsite at Manzanita before moving camp. It has also been entertaining at times to hear the goings-on of the park.

To the right are the first things we use when we reach the location. Immediately staking the centerpoint, we then work from that point for the rest of the plot. The two 50 m tapes are used to set up the plot and to measure slope. Next we have the clinometer and, of course, the compass. The clinometer is a neat device for measuring angles and heights. Using one of the 50 m tapes, we measure 20 m downslope of the stake, and use the clinometer to measure the slope angle. The compass gives us aspect of the slope, and we then use it to set up the north-south diameter line. The plots are 500 square meters, which entails a 12.61 m radius circle, so we run the tape out that far both north and south of the stake, giving us a 25.2 m working diameter.

The papers we use to record all the data are shown, filled in, at the top on the right. Under them is our permit to do field work for scientific research next to some of the USGS topographic quads of the area. Odd fun fact about topo quads as per Andrew: the green areas on the map are not just forested areas; they are areas of forest dense enough to hide a platoon of soldiers. Apparently the DoD funded the mapping project, and that is what they were interested in. As you can see from the papers, for each tree in the plot we measure several variables. The trees species, DBH, crown position, status, height, height to dead and live canopies, and live crown percentage estimate. The species is recorded as the abbreviated scientific name, for example Ponderosa Pine is Pinus Ponderosa is Pipo. Not so simple is White Fir, Abies Concolor, or Abco. Pinus Lambertiana, Pila, signifies Sugar Pine; Red Fir, Abies Magnifica, Abma; Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Psme; Jeffery Pine, Pinus Jefferyi, Pije; Western White Pine, Pinus Monticola, Pimo; Incense Cedar, Calocedrus Decurrens, Cade.
Pictured to the right are our main measurement tools. The orange item is the DBH tape, measuring the trees diameter by circumference. That's right, you simply measure the circumferance of the tree at chest height, and the units are so altered that they display diameter. The opposite side is a simple meter tape for measuring heights to dead and live crown base on trees where you can reach the bottom of the crown. The yellow digital instrument next to the diameter tape is called a hypsometer. The device includes a laser rangefinder, so you do not need to be exactly 15 or 20 meters away as is the case with the clinometer. Simply shoot the bottom of the tree and the top and it gives you the height. The white book is a photo series book for approximating surface fuels per acre, as seen on the reverse side of the sheet. Finally, we take two types of photos of the plots. The camera on the right actually uses old-school film, and we use it to capture hemispherical photos of canopy cover. The white bubble-level on top of the camera case lets one know the camera is pointed directly upward, and the special lense on the camera captures an entire hemispherical photo, all 180 degrees of the sky and canopy cover. These photos will be digitized from the negatives and a program will analyze them to determine percent of canopy cover. Lastly, the DSLR on the left captures digital images north, south, east, and west of the center stake.

We have to get out of Starbucks soon, as I've been typing for what seems like hours, but I will give a brief description of the overall point of collecting all this data first. The main concern of the project is creating a canopy fuels map. This map will be added as a layer to several other layers of the forest fire GIS. Canopy fuels are extremely important in determining the dynamics of forest fire for a type of forest. The layer will be used to simulate fires under a number of different conditions: elevation, slope, aspect, tree species, dead and live canopy base height; all these variables play a role in fire tree mortality and the ability for a surface fire to develop into a crown fire. By sampling plots all over the park, Andrew will come away with an extensive set of data for a wide variety of different forest conditions. The plots we are sampling were sampled by Calvin Farris, fire ecologist with the NPS, about 10 years ago for a surface fuels map. We are completing the photo series interpretation of surface fuels to compare the changes which have occured over the past ten years, however this is not quite as accurate as the study he did which included browns transects. The canopy fuels map layer Andrew creates will be added to the surface fuels layer, as well as elevation data and several other layers, before being "burned" in a simulator under a number of different scenarios. For now, that's the best I can do, more on this and what exactly a fire adapted forest is later.