FDRD partnered with the Forest Health Task Force this summer to support them with additional volunteers for their Forest Monitoring program. They have over 130 plots to monitor this summer for the Forest Service.

The Forest Service recruits volunteers to help collect re-generation data of forest plots that have been clear-cut in the past five years. The Forest Service is then using that data to determine how many trees need to be planted.

After the data for this summer is collected, the Forest Service will determine how many seedlings to order from the Forest Service nursery in Nebraska to be planted next summer.

One morning in June, we had 10 volunteers head out on Ophir Mountain to help the Forest One Health Task Force volunteers monitor for regeneration. Tree species and height is collected for each tree found in the 1 acre plot. Since then, volunteers have been out and have monitored 75+ plots and counting. Each plot has an average of 131 young trees. One plot had over 7800 trees, while others had only a handful.

Thank you to the volunteers who have invested their time to collect this valuable data.