1 Forest Report Prithiv Kumar, Jacob Regis, Mihir Bafna, Rodney Morgan

Forest Report
By: Mihir, Rod, Jacob, Prithiv
APES 5
10/29/17
2 Forest Report Prithiv Kumar, Jacob Regis, Mihir Bafna, Rodney Morgan

To conduct our forest investigation, on

October 19, we went to the Merwin Nature Preserve,

a subsidiary of the Parklands Foundation. The trail

that we followed is located in central Illinois around

the Mackinaw River. According to

www.parklandsfoundation.org (2), the Parklands

Foundation protects and restores natural lands in the

Mackinaw River valley of McLean and Woodford

counties. It has restored more than 3,200 acres pf

prairie, savanna, floodplain forest and river habitat in the Mackinaw River valley of McLean,

Tazewell and Woodford counties, and in other watersheds within McLean County since its

inception in 1967.

On the day we visited, the temperature at Merwin Nature Preserve was about 66

degrees Fahrenheit (19 degrees Celsius). This temperature is within range of the October

climate predicted by the second graph below, which shows a climate graph for Normal, IL, the

best available predictor for the area in which Merwin Nature preserve lies. The first graph

below details the fluctuation in spring temperatures in Merwin Nature Preserve over thirty-five

years. Although they are spring temperatures, they still identify an important point about the

preserve: temperature has been rising. We determined the forest is a temperate deciduous

forest because it is thriving and is quite resilient even in the face of rising temperature, and has

rich soil and layered leaves. In addition, temperate deciduous forests have a long, warm
3 Forest Report Prithiv Kumar, Jacob Regis, Mihir Bafna, Rodney Morgan

growing season (5), indicated in this forest by the trees retaining most of their leaves and the

surprisingly warm and humid climate.

(Bowers 2016) (3) (1)

As for forest health, forests are similar to animals, in that their fitness is determined by

how long they can sustain themselves across generations. A popular definition is that a forest is

healthy if it can sustain the numerous species that live in it and their functions and interactions.

This is true, but we believe that another definition of forest health is how well the forest is able

to recover from natural and human-caused disturbances, or resilience. By this definition, our

forest section is healthy because the trees in it are relatively young, indicating a recent

disturbance. The area was able to recover from this disturbance and is resilient. We know that

our trees are young because we measured each trees DBH (diameter at breast height) and

height, and they were generally indicative of trees between the ages of 15 and 35 years (6).
4 Forest Report Prithiv Kumar, Jacob Regis, Mihir Bafna, Rodney Morgan

Methods

In order to figure out whether or not we had a healthy forest we took several different

measurements. We took measurements of the trees height, the diameter at breast height of

the trees, how many trees there were, and what kind of trees there were. We also went around

and looked at several different parts of the forest while filling out the "Forest Sleuth" packet

which helped us look at the animal and plant life of the forest.

The primary part of our measurements were around the trees themselves. First we

would measure the height of the tree. In order to do this we used a meter stick. We backed up

away from the tree until the person holding the meter stick had the stick at a 45-degree angle

to the top of the tree. Once we hit the 45-degree angle we measured the distance between the

spot where we stopped to the base of the tree, and then added in the height of the person

holding the stick to get the total height of the tree. After we got the height of the tree we next

got the diameter. In order to get the diameter we measured it according the "diameter by

breast height" which basically is where you measure the width of the trunk at our chest. This

gave us the diameter of the tree, the diameter plus the height helped give us a rough estimate

of age (taller and wider = older) which lets us know how old/healthy our area was.

The final method we used to determine if we had a healthy forest or not was by filling

out the forest sleuth packet. The packet had us going around the forest looking for several signs

of forest life such as wildflowers, shrubs, footprints, tunnels, decaying trees, and many others.

In the process of filling out the packet we learned much about the forest. Several different
5 Forest Report Prithiv Kumar, Jacob Regis, Mihir Bafna, Rodney Morgan

animals populated the forest as evidenced by several kinds of tracks and tunnels. We also saw

different kinds of shrubberies and evidence of bug life under decaying logs. The forest sleuth

packet was a solid amount of data about the forest, and filling it out was a very important

method in figuring whether the forest was healthy or not.

Data

Size Number Species Avg. Width Avg. Height

(cm) (m)
0 5 cm Six Five Elm 3.8 4.65
5 10 cm Six Four Elm, One Ash, One Locust 8.833 6.533
10 20 One One Ash 11 12
cm
20 30 One One Ash 28 16
cm
30 40 Three Three Ash 35.333 21
cm
40 50 One One Ash 40.5 20
cm
Total Seventeen Nine Elm, Seven Ash, One 15.147 10.144
Locust

Our area was relatively homogenous, having almost equal populations of only two

species, elm and ash. The nine elm trees were our most prolific, and ash was the next largest

group, having seven of our seventeen. Ash also had the thickest tree at 40.5 centimeters, and

the widest, 23 meters. We had a lone locust tree, that was a bit odd among all the elms and

ashes. What is interesting to note is that our widest tree and our tallest tree were not the same,

showing that width and height are not perfectly proportional. The Shannon index calculates out
6 Forest Report Prithiv Kumar, Jacob Regis, Mihir Bafna, Rodney Morgan

to 0.869, which is not the best (7), as we did not have a very rich area, though, excluding the

singular locust, was relatively even.

Our elms were thinner and shorter than the ashes, which meant that they were

younger. This definite split between the older ashes and the younger elms probably means that

there was some disturbance in this area that slowed growth for a while, or removed the

younger ashes, and allowed new elms to move in. The single locust tree was, with a width of 10

centimeters and a height of 12 meters, probably born in between the ashes and the elms.

However, since a different species did grow back, and relatively successfully, this area is pretty

resilient.

Conclusion

Our definition of a healthy forest consisted of its resilience, or its reaction to a

disturbance. One way to measure resilience is the emergence of new trees after a disturbance.

We saw this through the American elm tree. While many different estimates have been

provided for the growth rate of the American elm tree, they all agree that elm trees are fast

growers. In this case, our group will say that elm trees grow about three feet a year when fully

planted (8). This converts to about .9144 meters. The average height of elm trees from 0-5 cm

was 4.65 m, which means the elm trees have been growing for approximately 4.5 years. Ash

trees grow moderately fast, at about two feet, or about .6096 m, a year (9). This means the ash

tree between 10-20 cm was about 24 years old, the ash tree between 20-30 cm was about 32

years old, the ash trees between 30-40 cm were 42 years old, and the ash tree between 40-50

cm was 40 years old. On average, ash trees are supposed to have a lifespan of over 175 years
7 Forest Report Prithiv Kumar, Jacob Regis, Mihir Bafna, Rodney Morgan

(10), and elm trees are supposed to have a lifespan of over 300 years (11). This means that this

forest is very young. Our oldest trees were "born" around 1975, which means that it was at the

nature center eight years after it. The other trees come afterwards, making it clear there was a

disturbance.

A general trend in our data was that as the size increased, the height did as well. Since

height and age also have a direct correlation, size and age also have a direct correlation. By this

trend, the class data also proves that the trees are young. About 66% of all trees were under 10

cm in size, which means that most of the trees in this forest are young.

A forest has to be able to take disturbances in order to survive. It is often impossible to

predict what can happen: sometimes a tree can just fall, and other times a fiery comet can blast

into that forest. A healthy forest is determined by its ability to respond to these disturbances.

While the preserve was founded in the late sixties, many of its trees are from this century.

What could have happened? One possibility is that human interaction caused a disturbance in

the growth, whether it was by hunting or chopping down the trees. Another is invasive species

coming into the forest and disrupting the growth. No matter what happened, the forest has

proven it could come back from this disturbance, shown by the trees growing back. This leads

our group to believe that the forest is healthy.

8 Forest Report Prithiv Kumar, Jacob Regis, Mihir Bafna, Rodney Morgan
9 Forest Report Prithiv Kumar, Jacob Regis, Mihir Bafna, Rodney Morgan

Sources

(1) https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/normal/illinois/united-states/usil0861

(2) http://www.parklandsfoundation.org/about/

(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5119899/

(4) https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_rm/rm_gtr267/rm_gtr267_005_013.pdf

(5) https://staff.concord.org/~btinker/GL/web/exploring_life/ecosystems/deciduous.htm

(6) https://www.mortonarb.org/files/Find%20the%20Age%20of%20a%20Tree%20-

%20middle%20school.pdf

(7) http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/hodges/ProtectUs/lp_webfolder/9_12_grade/Student_

Handout_1A.pdf

(8) http://www.usna.usda.gov/Newintro/american.html

(9) http://homeguides.sfgate.com/fast-ash-trees-grow-53147.html

(10) http://homeguides.sfgate.com/estimated-lifespan-ash-tree-95985.html

(11) https://www3.northern.edu/natsource/TREESA1/Americ2.htm

**Sources are referenced in the paper by number (i.e. (3)).