Coring Trees
Today, Wednesday, was spent coring and measuring trees. To get a record of the trees that are in the forest we had to transect a section in the forest and choose fifty trees in that section. We recorded the type of tree, the health of the tree, and the condition of the soil and plants around the tree. We measured the diameter of the tree base (or root crown) and the diameter of the tree at chest height. We measured the height of the first live branch and the width of the lowest branches. We also measured the height of the tree using a clinometer. The final step was to take two cores, one at the root crown and one at chest height. I cored about 10 trees yesterday, but only two today because we had more help.
To core a tree you have to place the tree corer perpendicular to the tree. You then hand drilled into the tree. Once that was done you placed the thin "spoon" into the corer and slowly removed the thin core.
posted by Mrs. McMinn @ 11:51 PM
6 Comments:
hey i wish i could come up there becuase the transect sounds really cool. i do not under stand how and what the core of the tree is. also, when you do this does it kill the tree.
casey
This sounds great- and something we can try back here in Stamford- no, it does not kill the tree, because the hole from the core is not wide (about the diameter of a pencil).
Is your Transect like the one that we all did in 6th Grade? It must be really interesting to see what professional scientists find in a transect versus what we found in 6th grade. What kind of wildlife have you found. I hope that you are enjoying your stay in Churchhill.
- Roger
Roger - That is exactly what I was thinking. When I get back I am going to check to see if the data from your transect is still available. I will have some of the data sheets that we did and we can compare them. Great idea!
Does tree coring damage the tree? I am curious? I assume it doesn't due to the thin layer of living tissue that exists on the outside of the tree??
Mr. Forde :-)
Will you be doing any sort of presentation when you return?? It might be really fun for us parents to bring our kids and all learn a bit about your trip??
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