User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
I sampled 5 replicates during my initial round of field sampling. I didn’t have much trouble implementing my sampling procedure. I did lots of prep in the office before going out to site which made the field work efficient. The only difficult thing was travel in between sites. There was still snow on the ground so I used skis for most of the travel. Some sites did not have enough snow for ski travel (the more south facing slopes) so I was taking off and putting on skis during sampling. The partial snow cover added an additional slipping/falling hazard while sampling on some of the steeper sites.
While sampling I noticed that the different tree species seem to be growing in clusters. For instance, if my sampling site is in predominately birch stand, that may not reflect the stand characteristics 200m away. Additional sampling will help to get a more accurate measurement of the composition of the forest. I plan on sampling another 5 replicates soon and the snow is gone now so sampling should be easier.
