"I will be listing different species of ferns....." An internship experience post by Keith Ladwig

Keith Ladwig, Ecological Data Collection intern with the College of Menominee Nation, shares his internship duties and experience in the blog post below:

Keith Ladwig, Sustainable Development Intern, works to identify ferns and forest plants.

Starting June 10th, 2013 through the 13th of June I attended the ITC symposium. One thing I thought was important was traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and scientific ecological knowledge (SEK)-- the different type of knowledge like being passed down from family or experiences. Then, the scientific things we might learn and then us being able to compare the two. There were other things that we did as well like listening to presentations, workshops, and tours.

                After the summer institute we began work on ecological data collection. We set up a one-hector plot behind the culture building on the CMN campus. We collect data on trees that are in our plots. Some of the data we collected includes diameter at breast height, the species identity, and any notes about the tree. Sosaeh, Brennan, and I worked together measuring and collecting data while working in each individual quad; which is a twenty by twenty meter area.

                Now we are making a virtual herbarium. In the herbarium we will include pictures of plants and tree species and identify them. We will use taxon code meaning using the scientific name. For white pine it would be Pinus Strobis which, would then be PINSTR. For the pictures we will rename and put them in photo files. They will be named in taxon, photographer, date, and the photo number. The herbarium will include trees that are in our plot and plants that we have not collected data on. We are going to set up an online list of species that we have in this area.

In the botany aspect I will be focusing on ferns and allies. I will be listing different species of ferns and other types of allies that are in this area. Earlier this summer each intern chose a tree species to do a bio about. Some of us had the same tree, but I chose the Red Pine. I wrote up basic information about it and how a person can tell it apart from other trees like the white pine.

Ecological Data Collecting: "There is valuable information..."

Three interns with the College of Menominee Nation Sustainable Development Institute are working on a project called "Measuring the Pulse (MTP)." In this post, Brennan Waupoose, MTP Ecological Data Collector, describes his experience and work below.

"Following the Summer Institute, the Ecological Data Collectors went to the Wabikon Lake plot located within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest near Laona, WI. We spent two days learning Condit’s protocol used by the Smithsonian Institute to create an inventory of tree species and size. This protocol is very advanced compared to the “fixed-radius” method sometimes used by Menominee Tribal Enterprises. Every 20-meter subplot has PVC pipes at every 5 meters (25 total) for a “roping” method to create a layout for mapping the trees.

After learning Condit’s protocol, we then returned to our site at College of Menominee Nation where we installed a one-hectare plot, which measures 100 meters by 100 meters, nearly 2.5 acres. This site will be used as a Training plot in the near future for CMN’s Natural Resource program and also serve as a control for scientific research of the Menominee forest. The plot has been divided into 25-20 meter square subplots known as quadrants or “quads”. The quads are used to map and create a census of the forest plot documenting all living trees greater than 2.5 cm. The process includes mapping, sequentially tagging, measuring diameter at breast height (DBH), identifying tree species, and recording each tree on data sheets in a consistent manner to ensure data integrity. Without consistency a re-census of the plot will have flaws between the original data and the re-census.

This has been a great learning experience so far.  Considering the amount of detail used in the protocol, there is valuable information that can be produced within this site and I see myself using this site to continue my tree-ring research."

Post written by Brennan Waupoose