FE 312
Forest Field School
This course combines approximately 90 hours of instruction and assignments for 2 credits. The course is an intensive 2-week course that combines lecture, field laboratories, and discussion periods. Field activities will be in our local McDonald-Dunn Forest for the first week. Breakfast and lunch and transportation from the College and back are provided. The second week activities will be on the Eastside Oregon Forests. Transportation, all meals, and housing will be provided for the second week.
Course Objectives:
The new Professional Forestry program will be a mix of current OSU College of Forestry students and transfer students from various community or other colleges. The key objective for the Field School course is the establishment of core baselines for forestry knowledge, forestry equipment use, and forestry field measurement techniques for all of these students entering the professional school. The objective will be met through an integration of field measurement exercises and examination/discussion of the development stages of managed forest stands in both western and eastern Oregon. Key topic areas will include the biological, mensurational, operational, and supply chain assets associated with each of the primary development stages in both of the geographic areas.
Success in this objective will be met by students’ abilities to:
Become very familiar with the traditional tools of Professional Foresters
Become very familiar with the traditional measurements of Professional Foresters including:
Ground measurements
Tree measurements
Plots
Log measurements
Become very familiar with the characteristics of stands at different management stages including 1) Regeneration, 2) Growing from non-merchantable to merchantable (thinning stage), 3) Merchantable, and 4) Older stands.
Become familiar with the characteristics of the harvesting process
Ground-Based
Steep-ground-Based
Become familiar with the characteristics of the working forest supply chain
Domestic
Export
Hydrology
Understand vegetation components of the riparian zone
Understand mapping units of streams
Understand aquatic habitat function
Understand stream discharge
Understand components of stream life
