1. Week 13 &
Objective
SWBAT identify forestry equipment and techniques used to measure a riparian forest buffer zone on our campus IOT determine if the buffer will adequately protect a body of water.

2. Tree Identification Review
Think about it before you answer:
Is it deciduous or coniferous?
Are there lobes and sinuses?
Are there needles? How many are there in a cluster?
Is a fruit or nut present?
What are some special features of each leaf?
Which term most accurately depicts the leaf?

3. Forest Buffer Calculations
Field Biology
CCTI
Mrs. Conway

4. What is a Forest Buffer?
Definition: A riparian forest buffer is an area of trees and shrubs located adjacent to streams, lakes, ponds, and wetlands.
Purpose:
Intercept sediment, nutrients, pesticides, and other materials in surface runoff and reduce nutrients and other pollutants in water flow.
Woody vegetation provides food and cover for wildlife, helps lower water temperatures by shading water body, and slows out-of-bank flood flows
The vegetation provides litter fall and large woody debris important to aquatic organisms.

7. Examples of Flooding

8. Pennsylvania Land Cover

9. Canopy Cover and Shade
Shade: is the amount of solar energy that is obscured or reflected by vegetation or topography.
Canopy cover: is the percent of the sky covered by vegetation or topography.
Of the measurement devices described in this chapter, the densiometer and clinometer both measure canopy cover while solar pathfinder and hemispherical photography measure both shade and canopy cover. Stream aspect can be combined with clinometer measurements to calculate streamshade.

10. Significance for habitat:
Riparian vegetation is a key component of fish habitat. A healthy riparian canopy shades the stream channel, in many cases preventing or reducing high summer water temperatures.
Healthy riparian vegetation stabilizes stream banks with the reinforcing action of interconnecting root systems. Stabilized stream banks are more likely to develop bank undercut, which provides important cover for fish.
Stabilized stream banks are less likely to provide fine sediments, which can embed spawning gravels and, in extreme cases, fill in pools.
Riparian trees also provide the majority of large woody debris (LWD) recruitment into the stream.

11. Forestry Tools Increment Borer Measuring Tape Clinometer
Biltmore Stick
Prism
DBH Tape
Video

12. Angle Gauge
A mechanical or optical device for measuring the basal area of trees in a variable plot sampling
Variable plot: a plot that contains tress of different sizes
Most common is a wedge prism

13. Clinometer
An instrument used to determine tree height based on slopes, elevation angles, and distance measurements.
Has a slighting hole and a suspended circular scale that can measure ground slope as well as tree height
hand-held

14. DBH Tape
Measurement of the diameter of a tree stem, outside the bark, taken 4½ feet above the ground on the uphill side of the tree.
The recommended tape has tree diameter in inches on one side, the other side measures length in feet and inches
100 foot tape is best

15. Increment Borer
Used to determine the age of a tree, an increment borer includes an extractor tray within a long skinny tube.
Once augured into the trunk, a sample of tree tissue is extracted and the rings are counted to determine age.
For some species, additional years are added to the number of rings;
example, for loblolly pine 3 years are added, and for longleaf 7 years are added.

16. Examples of How to Take Measurements
We will learn how to use these tools at a later time.
The following 3 steps are a preview to how this happens
This information is not an immediate concern.

17. STEP 1 Determine the buffer zone slope—Clinometer
Place pole at edge of water
Measure 100 feet from the first pole, then place second pole
Use the left reading to identify the slope % on the clinometer and RECORD

18. STEP 2 Tree Density-# of Trees per Acre
Place a pole in the center of your assigned area
Measure out 26 feet in four directions
Count the # of trees over 2 inches in diameter at DBH (4.5 feet) and RECORD

19. STEP 3 Find Basal Area--Prism Use the same pole from step 2
Find the DBH (4.5) feet
Use the prism to count the number of trees without moving your hand from the 4.5 feet position and RECORD

20. Tally, Do Not Tally, or Borderline??C

21. Importance of Stocking the Forest
Stocking Level – The proportion of existing street trees to the total number of potential street trees (number of trees plus the number of available planting spaces).
A basic measure of forest sustainability is the comparison of the volume of wood removed versus the volume accumulated through net tree growth. If net growth exceeds the amount of wood removed, then theoretically, the timber supply is sustainable.

22. Stocking in Pennsylvania
Forests normally change very slowly, but during disturbance they can quickly and dramatically change structure and composition.
Pennsylvania, 2009: Percent of forest land by stocking class, Stocking Class Area of forest land (percent)
Poorly stocked 10
Medium stocking 38
Fully stocked 48
Overstocked 4
Most of PA’s forests originated between years ago.
Most of the harvesting occurred to fuel the industrial revolution. composition..