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