Wednesday, April 16: Day 3

Stuart Brightbill:
What a great first full day out in the field! All 12 of us were put to the task to document measurements of plotted grids in the forest. This was a great way to not only work as a team with people from all over North America, but to actually be a part of important scientific research. Our data that we collected (600 trees, 75 stumps from a recently logged area) will be used to research how the climate changes have an effect on the forest's canopy. Like today, here's how our days will be going forward:

Briefing and field work: 8:45 a.m. - noon
Lunch: noon - 1 p.m.
Field work and debriefing: 1-5:15 p.m.
Dinner: 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Learning session: 7:30-9 p.m.

This may appear to be long days of work and study, but the energy that my fellow Climate Champions bring is quite contagious. Everyone is ambitious in the field work and eager to participate in the learning sessions. I look forward to tomorrow's work and study, and reporting back.

P.S. It is now 10:10 p.m., the learning session ended 40 minutes ago, and we are all still discussing the scientific aspects on the changing climate (tonight's learning session topic).

Kelly Chen:
The perfect start to a brisk spring day: a bowl of cereal, toast and much chatter in anticipation of our first full day in the field. Must admit that the smell and sizzle of bacon and eggs being prepared by fellow Climate Champions added to the ambiance, almost foreshadowing the sounds and various odors that would follow throughout the day. Amazing to be out in a mature forest during this time of year, as the leaves are slowly growing along with other vegetation under sunny skies. Very scientific, yet surprisingly simple work in comparison to my day-to-day work of firefighting client issues and negotiating pricing with clients.

Three teams of four measured, tagged and identified around 600 trees. Small trees, big trees, "twin" trees! Who knew you could identify different tree species by just looking at the branch formations? So if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Well maybe, but depends on what type of tree it is and how big it is. Is that the right answer?! Better check with the scientific types for a definitive answer! These scientists are definitely up to something when it comes to their research related to climate change. And as the day of field work ended, a hint of nature admiring what work we had accomplished: twin tiger butterflies flying by…

Mary Kay Edson:
Fantastic! Coming into this project, I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into. Our daily tasks have been described by others, so I'll share a broader perspective. The forest is beautiful, a previous dairy farm now with about 45 years of second growth forest and full of tulip poplars, beech, sweetgums, flowering dogwood and others. The sounds of the forest are soothing, from the beauty of lack of sound, to leaves crunching, deer running and cardinals calling (although there still is an absence of migrating warblers).

This journey began with a beautiful forest, local volunteers, scientists and a terrific group of colleagues. Daily, it progresses into a learning experience: about yourself, the forest and the climate issues. It's a project of collaboration in many aspects, be it preparing a meal together with friends just made 48 hours ago; working in teams to collect data; or considering the impacts our voice may have on future actions at HSBC--there is constant inspiration. The work and climate issues are motivating and challenging and it's exciting to consider what we'll learn tomorrow-- more to come!

Alex Gray:
A day of fieldwork is certainly different to being at a desk! We have all been surprised at how tired we feel--no doubt a combination of fresh air and compiling all the data in what is a new field of expertise that we are gaining. Some are able to take an hour break before the dinner and group discussion on climate related issues, but some have to cook for the whole of the team. Tonight was my turn, along with two others and it seemed to go well. Although having a Scotsman who did not grow up with a garden and thus a BBQ, as the cook on the grill was fraught with danger. Fortunately, teamwork came through, with many North American colleagues willing to give advice-no doubt with a vested interest in the outcome.

Thomas Higgins:
Today was our first full day in the field, getting a chance to apply the skills we learned the day before. Most of us--including me--spent the morning and afternoon measuring, tagging and identifying all trees of a particular size by species, diameter and location in 10 meter by 10 meter grids using x/y coordinates. In all, my team of four identified and tagged 165 trees, completing eight grids--which is a lot more draining than it sounds. Our entire team of Climate Champions tagged almost 600 trees today, which impressed our SERC project managers. My team actually refused to break for dinner until we completed our initial eight grids. We have a lot more to do over the next two weeks. This project will be quite long lasting, with the first planned follow-up measurements of our trees to occur in five years, building on the initial research we'll complete over the next ten days. Thankfully it's not all tree measuring. We'll be participating in a number of other projects as well. More to come!

Jeremy Sikora:
Today we started with data collection by measuring trees in our study plot. In the afternoon, Mary Kay and I were the first in Team 2 to be able to work with Dale, a SERC volunteer, collect data on stumps and geocoding in a recently logged area on the SERC property. The work consisted of first marking a waypoint with a GPS device, which records the latitude and longitude of the stump. That location was then linked to the other recorded details: stump diameter, distance from the ground to the stump cut and tree species. Within our allotted time, we traversed the study area and recorded 75 stumps and the accompanying details, breaking the record of 69 set by the previous Climate Champion team. After the brief trip back to home base (the Canopy Lab) we inputted the data from the GPS, transferred the data from our sheets to the master spreadsheet and added to the 710 stumps already recorded by Dale and his teams.

Linda Markott:
Today we began to earn our keep. Our task was to measure, identify, classify and tag a section of trees within a 10 x 10 grid. Except for our one-hour lunch break, we were on our feet for the entire day. Even though the majority of us would have loved to sit down for a minute or two, the fear of ticks prevented it. The majority of trees my team tagged were young. We tagged 193 trees. The work is not hard but very tiring. Our two scientists were very excited over the fact that an entire plot was tagged today. After dinner, Earthwatch Field Director Dr. Dan Stover gave a presentation on the science of climate change. The discussions continued well beyond 10:30 p.m. This has been a long, but very satisfying day. There are many different types of projects that we will be involved in. We are looking forward to tomorrow.

Tim Mercer:
My own thoughts have wandered into the science of how carbon dioxide (CO2) can be removed from the atmosphere. Having Internet access within the dorm has allowed me the opportunity to dive into this with more details. I have learned more about carbon fixation and an enzyme called RuBisCo which is a central player in the way CO2 is converted into carbon within the plant and O2 released to the environment. My learning continues as we participate in the field and evening lecture learning.

Sharon Powell:
Today we started off our morning briefing in the lab. We were in the field all morning, had lunch and headed back out again. We learned how to recognize ironwood, beech, sweetgum, maple, ash and dogwood trees. One of the trees we measured was 109 cementers. Huge! We stayed out in the field to finish up the end of the site. Our team measured and tagged a total of approximately 193 trees. It was a great day in the field and we had great weather.

Seth Ruden:
After only 10,611 steps and 1.4 miles, I have worn out the batteries on my personal GPS and was "fit for a kit." We managed to take a swift pace on the data logging for our plots and came up ahead of schedule… Tonight is the "Science of Climate Change" presentation provided by Dan. The rich education of this program makes the intensive labor easily