Post 5- Design Reflections

I performed the trial data collection a few days ago and found a few kinks in my design. I realized there a confounding variable in one zone (the second growth Doug Fir forest). There were a few mountain biking/dog walking trails that fragmented the area and the plot data that I collected in this section of the forest was completely absent of any ungulate activity at all (no old trails or anything), which is abnormal in my experience. As I continued to collect data and struggle over all the fallen trees and through the overgrown area I noticed that after I navigated across the last trail there was an increase in ungulate activity. I decided that when collecting my data for the final research I would randomize the points in an equally large 5 ha area south of this last trail (where there are no intersecting trails) in order to minimize the influence of human activity on the use of the area by deer and elk.

I also encountered some unexpected difficulty in accurately estimating percent cover of vegetation in the circular plotting technique that I decided upon. I tried my best to use the BC Ministry of Forest “Field Manual for Describing Terrestrial Ecosystems” and follow their guidelines for estimating in a circular plot and I will do my best to be consistent, but I imagine that by my last plot of the 30 replicates will be much more accurate than the first.

I found the randomization of points by GPS coordinates to be well suited for this study design, and I found that the AVENZA maps app on my Iphone to be easy to follow and navigate to the GPS point locations (though an external battery bank charger is necessary for extended amounts of time). The only issue was the accuracy, the GPS was only accurate to one decimal place of one second of latitude and longitude which theoretically should result in a 10×8 ft area for me to then have to try to randomize a location where the plot should go, but the GPS was jumping all over the place and I ended up having to estimate. I couldn’t just put it in the closest pile of deer scat or in the middle of a trail, and placing the plot in the middle of a bush wasn’t something that I would consider naturally. So, I decided I had to find the approximate boundaries of the points area and then estimate the middle so that I wouldn’t be biased in choosing a point.

I had intended on creating an inventory of all the shrub species that I found in each plot but quickly realized that there were species present that I couldn’t identify at this stage of the season. I decided to just enter them as other shrubs and not spend an eternity looking for defining physical characteristics.

One unexpected hurdle I did not expect was the compromising of my safety by choosing to navigate alone to GPS points in very thick bush where black bear and cougars have been recently sighted. I am well acquainted with traversing tough terrain from many seasons of tree planting, logging on the coastal mountain sides, and many extended hunting trips into the back country, so I did not really expect to experience some slight fear as I was half stuck in an Alder thicket looking down at fresh black bear prints following fresh fawn prints in the mud. I decided that I would forgo following this bear and possibly dead fawn into the next thicket just to collect my point data, and I would generate another random point instead. I decided to bring my bear bangers and some bells for my bag when I collect all my data so I don’t almost sneak up on a bear and its kill again.