This week was helpful in expanding my general
knowledge in forestry. I feel like the classes related to my major are starting
to get into the core material and I’m becoming more interested in forestry
every day. The amount of outdoor labs is such a nice change from high school
and just learning the basics of tree identification and tree measurements is so
intriguing to me. Being outside and enjoying the nice fall weather is so much
more enjoyable than sitting behind a desk every day. This week we did our first
“tree plots” which is the foundation of field foresters job. They consist of
counts of the trees in a specified area of a forest that are used to estimate
the total trees in the entire acreage of that forest. It’s very easy to learn
something that has a direct value and purpose to my intended job field.
Practicing and perfecting this field method is essential to furthering my
forestry knowledge here at Michigan State University. Overall I’m excited to
learn more about my field!
Works Cited:
Natural Resource Building. Michigan State
University, Michigan State University, 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.
This is so interesting. I've never even heard of forestry. This does sound completely different from working behind a desk so I'm curious to hear if the weather often affects this career? Like if it's raining, can you not go to the field to do your job? Or is that like a good thing because you can see different aspects of the nature? I am interested in seeing what else you post since this is so different and I know absolutely nothing about forestry!
ReplyDeleteField foresters work rain or shine. After the job shadow I did for this type of forestry job, I was told that there were some pretty bad snow storms that the employee had to go work out in where he would've much rather stayed home. Part of a field foresters job is making sure that the lumbering crew can reach the the job site. So if a part of road is blocked by a fallen tree or something, it is the forester's job to go and take care of that tree so the "big guns" (heavy expensive tractors) can reach the site in a timely manner. So you can imagine driving on some snow covered backroads in a big truck to clear the path to the site.
DeleteI think this field sounds really cool. It's kind of like what I want to do in the sense that I don't want to sit behind a desk, but be out in the field working with nature. It is really cool that your class gets to do hands on experience on campus. What class is this for? What are you hoping to do with Forestry in the future?
ReplyDeleteFOR 222 is lab that covers the field methods of a forester. This class focuses on the basic ways to take tree measurements and basic field navigation. I haven't really narrowed my job path down yet but I know that I would like to work in Michigan and I would like a very field intensive forestry job so I could work outside as much as possible.
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