Friday, April 4 and Saturday, April 5: Days 5 and 6

Hilary Bouchard
Friday: Progress! Today, our teams finished plotting all of the trees in two columns of our first hectare. In addition to the field work, our action-packed days and evenings have been filled with tremendously enlightening presentations. Last night, Earthwatch staff member Carla Handley gave a brilliant talk on the socioeconomic impacts of climate change. Today, Dr. Bert Drake gave a presentation on energy which was so engaging that the resulting questions and dialogue ran over the allotted time. We had to race back to the field before we had covered many of the slides. Dr. Drake was gracious enough to join us at lunchtime to complete his presentation. We discovered that we desperately need to educate ourselves about how the rising demand for energy is going to be met as the supply decreases in the coming years, so we can take appropriate actions on a large scale.

John Camp
Friday: Rick and I started the day with a 7 a.m. hike. The time we spent walking made us appreciate the natural beauty as well as the threat posed by global warming. As we got by the water, we startled an eagle that was enjoying breakfast. He flew away with his prey to find a quieter place to finish his meal.Dr. Bert Drake gave a thought-provoking presentation on carbon dioxide (CO2), growing energy demand and available supply of known fuel sources. We clearly have a major challenge to prevent the estimated 1- to 6-degree rise in global temperatures that are predicted on our current course. Surprisingly, nuclear alternatives were presented as a logical alternative choice to fossil fuels.In the forest, we continued cataloging trees in one of our eight designated study plots, which measure 1 hectare, or 100 by 100 meters each.

Michael Dimond
Friday: In addition to trees, the forests are filled with uncountable varieties of birds. There is a constant medley of miscellaneous birdsongs. Mornings and evenings are the most musical, with the local frogs joining in for the chorus.Our primary activity has been mapping trees in a particular section of the forest, which is like taking inventory. Every tree more than 1 cm in diameter is given a specific identification number, measured, classified and noted for any abnormalities or damages. In addition to studying the forest’s development, the mapping also gives an indication of how much carbon is "stored" in this particular area of the forest.In addition to mapping, I was out with a small group studying the phenology--the study of the timing of recurring natural cycles. In our case, we were studying the budding of tulip poplar trees. The tulip poplar is a good candidate for an indicator species in the forests of this area. As you can imagine, studying the budding was complicated by the fact we wanted to observe the growth at the top of the trees, and the trees are each at least 60 feet tall. They wouldn't let us climb them. Judging the poplars is pretty straightforward. Our team examines the top of the tree to see what percentage of the buds have fully opened. This gets noted and will be used to determine the impact of warming trends on the forest here. Jeff, one of SERC’s science technicians, says the budding is earlier than usual this year. The data will give a benchmark to gauge the actual impact of climate change.

Mire Levy
Friday: Into the fifth day of the HSBC Climate Champion field program, I have a better idea how this whole initiative will fit into my normal role as a commercial banker. Sure, it makes sense to tackle things and behaviors that are easy to change at the grassroots level, such as promoting conservation in and around my home office. But I kept grasping for a bigger picture of how I could incorporate all this newly acquired knowledge into my daily activities in working with commercial/corporate clients. Dr. Bert Drake’s presentation gave me a bigger framework to shape my thoughts around. In addition, the evening learning sessions and HSBC’s SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis around the climate change gave me interesting ideas that could potentially build the bridge between desire to facilitate environmentally advanced (but financially yet-to-be-proven) commercial interests, while meeting regulatory risk management requirements. With one more week left at this program, I hope these nebulous thoughts will start to form into a more easy-to-grasp concept that I can take back with me to my colleagues in Seattle.

Saturday: On Friday night, we were told that the chance of rain on Saturday was 100 percent, and yet it turned into a very nice, partly sunny day. Taking advantage of the decent weather, Jess took us up to the top of the climate observation tower. The steel tower built atop a small hill was just tall enough to be above the tree canopy and gave us a 360-degree view of the entire Chesapeake Bay area. Highlights of this trek up the tower were: (1) being able to see at the eye level the “tulip” buds of tulip poplars that we had been observing via binoculars during our previous field work, and (2) feeling the tower sway with the each gust of wind as we got closer to the top. Oooo hooo!

Sabrina Spencer
Friday: Today, I took a break from tree mapping and helped Jeff out with a phenology project; we were documenting the bud stages of tulip poplars. This project took us to a newly acquired research plot that was recently acquired by SERC. The destruction and state of this plot was absolutely disgusting – what could we possibly need so badly that we need to destroy nature to this degree! Even the mood among the group changed when we entered the logged plot and saw the destruction and natural debris that had been left behind. We were further distraught when we found out our project for next week is to measure and map all the organic debris (branches, fallen trees, stumps) that are left behind!

Rick Szafarz
Friday: The past several days have been very busy between lectures, discussion, and work in the field. For the past two days, I have been assigned to a team led by Nancy Khan, one of SERC’s Science Technicians. Yesterday, our team worked across several ten-meter plots identifying the trees, tagging them, measuring their diameter, and designated their crown class (exposure to sunlight in relation to the surrounding trees). In the morning, Nancy took us out to several other locations where we left buckets along a grid pattern. The buckets are left for a month to collect falling debris for later analysis.In addition, Lead Scientist Dr. Jess Parker asked the group to start photographing any emerging undergrowth on the forest floor as we move along the grids. For the past two days, I have been taking pictures of many newly emerged plants, including several spring wildflowers. We plan to transfer the images to his system so that we can review and identify them for his records.After we finish our field work in the late morning, Jess is going to give us a tour at the top of a tower just above the tree canopy to show us the instruments they use to collect rainwater, measure the amount of carbon in the air, and analyze the quality of the sunlight including the various frequencies of the ultraviolet spectrum. Apparently, the top of the tower offers an impressive view of the surrounding area including Chesapeake Bay. In the afternoon, we plan to spend our recreation time exploring the city of Annapolis, home of the U.S. Naval Academy.

Jane Vohwinkel
Friday: Whoa! Information overload! I just finished an MBA program, and it was a walk in the park compared to the learning experience we’ve had over the past week. Our team is like a sponge. The last few nights we’ve gone on past 10 p.m. The discussions are intense, but so are the issues. Certainly no easy answers here, but we have had the benefit of gleaning the latest information on the subject of climate change from some of the most respected and renowned researchers here at Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). These folks are amazing and are looking to us (imagine that!) to provide a practical business view. What an opportunity we have been given. This will definitely be an evolutionary process for the team, which will entail internalizing what we are learning, evolving ourselves and then externalizing that commitment by passing it along to our HSBC colleagues, neighbors and friends.This morning, our focus was on the key contributors as well as the alternatives that have been identified to date to combat climate change. Day five from the field, tick free and still smiling…Jane

Saturday: The work in the cut forest is challenging. It’s like a lumber camp and maneuvering around and over the logs affords quite a workout (but not a bad thing). In the afternoon, we were provided a welcomed break: a trip to Annapolis. From the field (at least in the morning)…Jane.