Outdoors: Species ID, site indicators and mapping.
More About This Phase
This phase will be focused on pulling all that we've learned together so that we can look at the larger ecosystem where chestnut belongs. We'll spend just a couple of hours in the morning learning a bit more about species identification as well as a bit on using handheld GPS units. We'll then go out to put almost all of the past learned skills to the test as we take a nature walk around the meeting grounds. Because we'll be working more on species identification, please bring along a sample of a twig with a few leaves attached so we might work on their identification together. Tree samples will be preferable over smaller types of plants.
References
PDF document, 960.3 KB
There are different categories of forest types which can allow one to expect certain cohorts of forest species to occur together. These categories have changed over the years. This presentation briefly covers historical and current thoughts to forest regions where American chestnuts were and are found.
PDF document, 3.0 MB
We covered some tree identification in Phase III, but here we will put your skills to the test on species other than chestnut. Because of this, we will cover various terminology more in depth and also work on improving abilities of keying out species using Peterson's Guide to Eastern Trees.
PDF document, 16.2 MB
What can what you see in the forest today tell you about what happened in the past and how the forest might respond in the future? We will cover some basic elements of how to "read" elements of the forest so that you might know how best to establish American chestnuts on that site.
