Field Research
A small group of high school students have a unique, hands-on opportunity to study soil health, water quality, insects and macro invertebrates, wildlife, the effect of various forestry treatments as part of a management plan, plant communities, microclimates, and other ecology topics in a 47-acre family forest near Cheshire, Oregon. The land, known as the Bear Creek Wilderness, consists of second-growth Douglas-fir and Ponderosa Pine forest, a spring-fed pond, wet meadow, prairie, and borders Bear Creek, a year-round class 1 stream.
Details
This project is for high school students interested in field science, ecology and forestry. Students work with a mentor to participate in and/or design a research project that contributes to the scientific knowledge about the Bear Creek Wilderness and Research Forest. Students will have access to a variety of research equipment (see below) and potentially funding for new equipment if their research question requires it.
Field days will happen on Fridays (transportation provided from a central Eugene location) depending on what the experiment requires. Meetings about data analysis, secondary research and the write-up process will be conducted over zoom, also on Fridays.
For example, if a team of 2-4 students decides to study fungi, we would work to design an experiment before the rains and then likely work each Friday collecting data between when two inches of rain falls and the first hard freeze (peak mushroom season.) Likely data analysis and report writing would happen after data collection has been completed.
If students want to help establish forest plots for long-term ecological studies, they might choose to come out one Friday a month for a semester or the entire school year. Projects can be as small as a quarter credit, and potentially up to a full credit or more depending on the scope of the research and write-up.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to: mushroom survey, forest plot establishment, meadow knapweed part II (invasive weed control), climate monitoring, entomology, and wildlife.
Scientific Equiptment
Browning Trail Cameras (6) with memory cards and batteries
Vernier Go Direct Optical Dissolved Oxygen Probe
Vernier Go Direct CO2 Gas Sensor
Soil Moisture sensor
pH Sensor
Water Temperature Data Loggers (3)
Air Temperature Data Loggers (3)
HOBO Loggers (3)
Aquatic-D net
Digital Microscope 60X (battery powered)
1-meter plot squares, one divided into 100 units
Questions Students Might Ask
How does temperature vary throughout Bear Creek Wilderness? Are there microclimates where the extremes of hot and cold are less than in other areas? What nearby biotic and abiotic factors might contribute to any variations? Do we see more or less of various wildlife species as recorded on the trail camera, and/or identified through scat and tracks in some areas than in others?
How does a forest plot with various treatments differ from an untreated plot as measured by soil quality (microbe activity, CO2) light penetration through the canopy and vegetation diversity? Can we discover statistically significant differences by comparing randomized 1-meter square plots within the larger plots?
Can we find a correlation between abundance and richness of lichen species and air quality and/or temperature and/or canopy density as measured by light penetration? And moss and/or fungi?
What species of macroinvertebrates live in Bear Creek? Does diversity of species vary by location along the creek? How do man-made structures, such as the bridge for the road, affect what wildlife we find in the creek in those locations? What is the water quality as measured by pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature and conductivity of Bear Creek? Do these factors change with time of day, season and/or weather?
How is the water quality of the pond different than the spring (above) and Bear Creek (below)? What macro and micro invertebrates live in the pond? Does it vary with time of day and season? How does the water temperature of the pond change throughout the day and the year? Does this correlate with species abundance? If we plant shade trees around the pond and/or add large woody debris will that affect wildlife diversity in and around the pond?