- "Reading the Ground" - Ecosystems
- What do we want to know?
- what trees should I grow
- how productive is the ground
- any problems likely to occur in the next 100 years? (brush, slope stability)
- Key factors
- soil moisture
- soil nutrients
- topography (e.g. aspect)
- How to determine key factors
- analyze soils in a lab ...
- ... or "read the ground"
- trees & plants "express the site" ...
- ... history of disturbances
- ... growing conditions
- For today ...
- trees
- Douglas-fir ... typical of the local ecology
- Lodgepole pine ... drier & poorer
- Hemlock & cedar ... moister (shaded, lower slopes)
- Alder ... disturbed sites, or wet
- plants
- salal ... dry-wet, poor-medium
- sword fern ... dry-wet, medium-rich
- salmonberry ... moist & rich
- show edaphic grid
- topography ...
- slope position (... seepage & soil depth)
- aspect (heat & moisture)
- steepness (heat & moisture)
- soils ...
- depth
- texture
- coarse fragment content
- look at road cut and windthrow
- What to take note of
- dominant trees & plants
- trees ... assess "relative amount of firewood"
- plants ... dominant and/or "indicator plants"
- e.g. Fd (Pl)-salal or Alder- salmonberry
- basic topography
- slope position (as per "the raindrop")
- slope gradient (usu. %)
- aspect
- e.g. mid-slope, SE-facing, 35% slope
- basic soils (if available)
- texture as simple as coarse (sandy) or medium (loam) or fine ("mucky")
- sand - feel between fingers
- silt - fine & slippery
- clay - finer & sticky
- depth ... rough estimate (usu. as a range)
- cfc ... how much rock (thickness of a dime)
- e.g. loam - 30-60cm - 45% cfc
- location, location, location
- you should be mapping this information
- ideally you are mapping polygons
- how is it done?
- first describe what you first walk into
- then look for a significant change (different species, big change in tree size/age)
- then map the bdy btwn the polygons
- and describe the other polygon
- example on the board ...
- record on the "B page"