 Adirondack
Curriculum
Project - www.adkcurriculum.org
NYS Content Area Standard
MST
NATIONAL STANDARDS
Science: Understands
the Nature of Scientific
Inquiry
Mathematics: Uses basic
and advanced procedures
while performing the processes
of computation
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Title: Silviculture Challenge
Grade Level: 10-12th Grade, The Living Environment
Author: J. Winters & A. Green, Hadley-Luzerne CSD
Email: winterfish43@netzero.com
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Adirondack Curriculum Content Area
_X_ Natural History
___ Human History
___ Culture & the Arts
___ Government & Civics
___ Economy
___ Health, Recreation &
Life Skills |
Investigative Question or Issue: Do the trees in your
forest have enough space to grow?
Challenge:
In
your lab groups, create a field inventory of all the trees found in an
area chosen with the help of your teacher. Your inventory should
include an accurate accounting of the species, diameter, height, and
basal area of each of the trees found in your plot. Once you have
collected the data on each tree in your forested area, you will need to
calculate the number of trees/acre, and the total basal area of
trees/acre. As a group, you will then draw conclusions using the same
charts that foresters use about whether the forest is “over stocked”,
“well spaced” or “under stocked”. Be sure to check with your teacher to
find out the criteria for a quality Field Inventory. Make sure that
every group member understands and agrees with all the data submitted
in your inventory and is prepared to verify, explain and defend all the
data submitted, if asked to do so.
Context for Challenge:
Foresters make management decisions (whether to thin or cut trees)
based on forest inventory data. Inventory data can help provide
information on how crowded a forest is, based on the number, size, and
type of trees, and provide insight as to whether there has been any
disturbance in the recent past. The teacher can choose to have students
do more interpretation of their inventory results in those areas. This
challenge specifically has students use forestry measurements and
summaries to determine the status of the forest with respect to tree
density which is reported as number of trees/acre and basal area of
trees/acre. Basal area (BA) of a tree is defined as the cross-sectional
area of a tree stem at 4.5 ft from the ground, the height at which
diameter is measured.
The teacher will want to show students how to use a Biltmore stick and
give them some tools for tree
identification prior to beginning this challenge. The students will
eventually need to know the area (in
acres) that they are inventorying.
Procedures:
- Determine the minimum diameter of trees to
inventory. (4 inches is typical.)
- Students develop a field plan for collecting
the data (strategy for identifying and measuring all the trees, group
roles/jobs
- The equation for determining individual tree
basal area (BA) is : BA (square feet) = DBH2
(inches) X 0.005454
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Quality Standards:
- Each group member participates in the
creation of the field inventory.
- Each group member can demonstrate the
capacity to identify a tree species using a tree identification key.
- Each group member can demonstrate the
capacity to use a Biltmore stick to measure a tree in the field.
- All aspects of the field inventory
meet the criteria for a quality Field Inventory as agreed upon in class
- Each group member can verify,
explain, and defend the data presented in the inventory when asked to
do so.
Resources:
http://www.fs.fed.us/na/morgantown/frm/stewardship/pubs/refhbk/refhbk.pdf
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/misc/flg/index.cfm
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Adapted for the Adirondack
Curriculum Project from
the work of Education By Design TM and Leading EDGE, LLC
©ACP 2002
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Northern Forest Partnership.