Senior Project- Forest Inventory at Hat Creek

Hello, 

My name is Clay Brock I am a senior at Fall River Jr. Sr. High school. I am doing my senior project with California Trout. A senior project is a requirement to graduate from Fall River High school. It involves 20 hours of volunteer work and has to do with something that helps out the community. My senior project is with Cal Trout and I am continuing with the work that I did this summer as part of the Hat Creek Youth Initiative. I worked for the Hat Creek Youth Initiative for 8 weeks and completed pre-project monitoring for the restoration project at Hat Creek. 

For my senior project,  I am doing Riparian Forest inventory quality control and double checking the plots that we completed this summer. Forest Inventory gives us an idea of what type of trees, how old they are and how big they are that are in a certain area. We did forest inventory plots on the Right stream-bank of Hat Creek from Wood Duck Island to Hwy. 299 Bridge. 

How we took data for the forest inventory was we first measured the Diameter at Breast Heights (DBH)and then determined the species of the tree. If the tree was a Conifer and had a diameter larger than 4.5 inches then we would take a core sample to tell how old the tree was. After all of this we would then find the height of the tree by either using a clinometer or a laser. We counted all of the trees within a 1/10^th acre plot that had a diameter greater than 1” and were taller than 4.5’ high. 

 

We completed 13 plots during the Hat Creek Youth Initiative. Doing Riparian Forest inventory quality control double checks the data that has already been taken and makes sure there were no mistakes.  I helped quality check 20% of the plots completed by the HCYI. I chose to do this as my senior project/summer job because I found it to be beneficial for a career path further down the road. It also looks good on resumes. I enjoyed this summer and learned very useful information and I hope to be back at it next year. 

Thanks, 

Clay Brock

HCYI's Forestry Tour with W.M.Beaty & Associates

Hat Creek Youth Initiative's Student Blog: Cody McCann

My name is Cody McCann. I am 16 years old and will be a junior at Fall River High School. My interests involve football, hunting, fishing and target shooting. I applied for this job at CalTrout because I thought that it would be a good experience and it's better than mowing lawns all summer! On July 31, we went to a timber sale for a Forestry tour. 

Our tour guide was Sarah Oldson, a Staff forester from W.M. Beaty & Associates. She brought us to the timber sale, but before we got to see the action she took us to a road off of Highway 89 and showed us how to identify some of the trees in the area. Sarah also taught us how to take the height and diameter of a tree using a clinometer and tape measure (D-tape). When we went to the timber sale, which was located between Burney and McCloud off of Highway 89, we saw come cool machines that they use. Some of the machines were the loader, processor, skidder, the saw, transportation trucks and the Cat's, or in other words, Dosers. The saw was able to cut down a tree with a two foot diameter within less than two seconds! At the timer sale we interacted with Sarah, Tim Ferreira a Licensed Timber Operator with Timberland Logging, and Pete Johnson a Registered Professional Forester with W.M.Beaty & Associates. They were logging multiple types of trees, but they were mainly trying to get Cedar and Douglas-Fir because those are the trees that are worth the most money.

I thought that seeing the timber sale and some of the machinery was kind of cool. I learned that there is more to the timber sale than what I thought. I originally thought that they just picked an area and clear cut the whole thing, but they take species of animals, water, and historical sights into consideration. What surprised me most, though, was how fast it took the saw to cut down a bit, thick tree. I would like to thank Sarah, Tim, and Pete for taking their time and patience to show us the timber sale.

The forestry tour, overall, was a good experience for us to observe. I have had a good summer being able to work outside and interact with new people. I may use some of the skills I learn over the summer in the future and I might end up doing this job again next summer since I hear there will be more manual labor involved. 

Thanks,

Cody McCann

Hat Creek Youth Initiative

Student Blog Post - Whisper Stanley

Hi, my name is Whisper Stanley and I will be a junior at Burney High School. I decided to work for Cal Trout this summer because its a great opportunity for future jobs and a cool way to show that I care for Hat Creek and the environment. An interesting part of work this summer was the Muskrat Mapping.

Muskrat Mapping is when we went out and measured the stream bank that had high damaged areas that the invasive muskrats have caused. We measured this by redlining, walking transects, and GPS. Redlining is marking on the GPS where the area was and transects is when we had a crew member walk a straight line down the middle of the muskrat  areas and count every hole in his path. The muskrats were originally used at the rat farm outside of McArthur to make fur boots and coats for the soldiers during World War 2, but after the war the muskrats were set loose and have traveled all the way to Hat Creek. Muskrats make their burrows along the stream bank, making the ground weak so that it erodes away, causing the river to grow wider which slows the speed of the river.

I enjoyed muskrat mapping because I got to learn things about the muskrats that I didn't know before, like how muskrats are invasive to Hat Creek and how they were used during WW2. I also thought it was fun when we had to choose a certain spot to map because our crew leader, Colby, had me spin in a circle three times with my eyes closed then toss a can behind my back in any direction. Where ever the can landed was the area we walked transects.

In conclusion, this summer has been rewarding. I learned many new skills during this job that I know will help me get a conservation job in the future. Also, it was fun meeting new people to work with while helping to restore Hat Creek.

Thanks,

Whisper

     

Hat Creek Youth Initiative

Student Blog Post: Lincoln Granillo

My name is Lincoln Granillo and I am 19 years old. I graduated from Fall River High School this past June. My interests are back breaking work like construction or farm work. In my free time, I play video games with my family members. The reason I joined the Hat Creek restoration project was because I needed a job and I wanted to try something new. I avoided using my brain in school, so I wanted to show that I could use it if I need to. My favorite activity this summer was the LWD inventory, or Large Woody Debris inventory, because the water kept me cool when I was working.

 LWD inventory is where we collect data on all logs in or above the water. We use a cloth tape measure to get the diameter and total length. We also established if it was a log or rootwad (a rootwad is the tree's root system). We needed to tell if the tree was unstable, pinned, ramped, or bridged. We also had to tell the orientation of the log like parallel, perpendicular, down, or upstream and the decay of the log. All this information was needed to tell the lifespan of each log in the stream. For example, a log that is ramped will probably be there longer than an unstable log.

Thanks to the knowledgeable Jeff Cook. He told us what a log was according to LWD inventory standards. This made it easier, so that not a whole lot of time was wasted on measuring every stick and log in the stream. Before we did LWD, I thought the log just made the stream ugly. Now I see logs are important, but we need to find a middle ground between an idealistic setting of clear clean water with fish everywhere and between a log providing habitat and spawning grounds for fish. Logs are important ecologically in two very big ways. One which is very important to the restoration project is fish habitat. Logs provide cover for fish from predators. The other would be to increase increase the speed of the water in the thalweg so that the sediment slug get pushed out of the water system faster. The sediment slug is bad because fish do not lay eggs in silt and there are few bugs that live in silt for the fish to eat.

This job has been a good experience. One, to myself to prove that I can process information and two, my field boss, Colby Tucker, is a cool dude because he gives me some responsibility. It is a good thing he is around my age because he can relate me. Meeting new co-workers and being able to successfully work in a group has been a rewarding experience.

Thanks, 

Lincoln Granillo

P.S. Keep reading the blog to find out about what the group is doing next!

USFS Career and Professional Development Day

Hat Creek Youth Initiative - 
Student Blog Post: Dylan Spooner

My name is Dylan Spooner and I going into my senior year at Burney High School, and I enjoy playing footballs and participating in Kinetics. I wanted to do the Hat Creek Youth Initiative because I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn more about the area that I live in. My favorite thing I’ve participated in so far this summer is the photo-point monitoring. 

I’m going to write my blog about the career and professional development day we had on July 15^th at the USFS Hat Creek Ranger District Office. The first thing I learned about that day, was the importance of being detailed in my resume. There were great speakers such as Kit Mullen, Allison Jackson, Naomi Brown from the United States Forest Service, that gave us firsthand knowledge about what they are looking for in a resume. We even had one-on-one time to improve our resumes that we used to apply for the Hat Creek Youth Initiative. We also had the speakers talk about how to write a cover letter, and how to have a good interview. 

In the afternoon, we had Jim Ostrowski from the College of the Siskiyous come and speak to us about the many career and education opportunities in Natural Resource Conservation. He described the Natural Resources program at College of the Siskiyous that many students participate in to obtain a degree. 

We had Naomi Brown explain to us the ease of setting up an account on USAJobs. This program allows many people to easily apply for government jobs across the nation. This website is a great opportunity for me because in the future I have easy access to look for a job I would be interested in applying for. One job I’m interested in that I learned about is working with GIS (Geographic Information Systems) because I like working with computers. 

Overall, I thought this Career and Professional Development Day was very helpful and a great experience for me. I gained knowledge about writing resumes, cover letters and having interviews. I got to speak with important members of the USFS such as the District Ranger Kit Mullen, Allison Jackson and Naomi Brown. I feel that this opportunity has given me a great advantage in applying for jobs in the future. 

Thanks, 

Dylan Spooner

A huge thank-you goes out to the USFS Hat Creek Ranger District Office for hosting this career day for the Hat Creek Youth Initiative. We would also like to thank Jim Ostrowski from College of the Sikisyous for his time and great information. We look forward to another successful career day next year!