Out with our forester and a surprise visitor

This morning as we arrived at headquarters to start the day, I saw this vehicle with Massachusetts license plates pulling in the parking lot so, I go over to see if I could help them.  The fellow gets out....it's Kelly McDowell our project leader from the south Texas complex!!!  What a nice surprise.  After introducing him to our project leader here, we took them on a little tour of the refuge.  We showed them the Bald Eagle nest, saw some ducks, as we talked about management techniques.  We had a great time.

Yesterday, we went out in the forest with our forester from the refuge.  We learned how to use the correct type of compass, a Silva Ranger.  We had to hike quite a distance to get to our plot.  One of the other tools we used was a wedge prism which would show us if a tree was in or out.  We started with the tree that was north of the area after setting out a middle ribbon on the ground.  One would stand over the ribbon with the prism lined up directly over it to see if it was in or out.  The tree had to have a diameter of 4".  If it was in and at least 4", we would name what kind of tree, the diameter of it, and then how tall it was by using a clinometer.  We also had to note if it had any cavities.  We used a loggers tape measure to get the diameter of the tree.  That was really interesting, another learning experience.  We were able to finish two plots before lunch.  I mowed while Wallace weedeated around headquarters, then finished up the day by getting things ready for our fishing derby June 18th.  More on that later.