It is so hard to believe that this program is already half way through. With the first half behind us and four weeks to go until our final presentations, I am very optimistic of the progress we have made. Emily and I continued measuring and recording many different data sets this week. We used a pole pruner to collect branches from each mother tree in order to identify them as hybrids or pure bred. We also used a height pole to measure the heights of 150 trees. Collecting all of this data, as well as the data we had from last week, has given Emily and I a lot of material to analyze these next few weeks. We are very excited to start analyzing and making connections between our data.

Perhaps the greatest challenge from this week was using the pruning pole to collect branches from our trees. This extremely long (extendable) pole posed many balance and maneuvering obstacles for Emily and I. Looking straight up for several hours at a time left Emily and I with some uncomfortable neck pains for a while. However, it was worth the pain to practice this valuable skill and gain experience with another forestry tool and process. It also made us more appreciative for the much easier height pole we used to measure heights of trees.

Our faculty advisor, Dr. Shaneka Lawson (to the left), even joined us in the field one day. Dr. Lawson helped Emily and I measure and record the heights of all our Butternut trees within the plantation. We were also joined by an American Toad hopping through the plantation. The weather this week was beautiful and sunny every day, which we were very thankful for. Hopefully the sunshine continues next week! Until then…

#week4done #halfwaypoint #timeisflying #toadsarecool #neckpain #nopainnogain #Butternutbabies #treesarelife #REEU2019