The original plan for my last project was to go back to Dixie National Forest in Utah for a 4 day backcountry. However, in true ACE fashion they switched things around at the last minute (literally). On Monday night I found out I was leaving on Tuesday for Apache at 7:00 am the next day. The funny thing was that the crew going to Apache had already left that morning, so I had just missed them by a few hours. The next morning though, Adam, who I worked with in Sedona, picked me up along with Noah, who was also supposed to go to Dixie again, and drove us to Apache.
It was about a 3 hour drive and we arrived around 11:30. This particular project is very technical and apparently required a lot of training, which is what people were doing when we showed up. We went to the ranger station because the crew was in a conference room for the training. Both Noah and I already missed GPS training which was on Sunday (because we were not supposed to be on this project) and we missed the first few hours of training today. We walked into the conference room and were greet by the rest of our 20 person crew. Throughout the day we discussed how to use forest service radios, identify wolves and coyotes, Mexican Spotted owls, and of course we talked about our actual task. The next day of work was also a training day and we learned how to identify spruces, firs, and White Pines. This is because in some areas we need to individually treat trees and the tabs only protect spruces and firs. We needed to identify White Pines because later in the season the crews will have special tabs to put on just the White Pines to protect them, so we need to be able to tell the forest service what areas the pines are in.
This project is a 2 month project. The goal is to protect the forest trees from bark beetles which bore into the trees and kill them. This forest also had a bad fire a year or two ago, and fires usually mean an increase in beetle activity. Many trees are also home to the endangered Mexican Spotted owl. So there were many reasons why it was crucial to protect these trees and do our jobs well. The way we protect the trees is through stapling pheromone tabs onto the trees that send a signal to the beetles that the tree is "full" and they need to find a different tree. The hope is that the beetles will receive this signal from so many trees, become confused, and eventually be flying around long enough for birds and other insects to eat them.
To accomplish this task we worked in sub-crews of 5 (that's why there are 20 people on the crew). Each person in the crew has a different task as well, and each crew has a specific plot of forest to cover (many many acres). For most of the forest we are able to cover our plots in a grid like pattern (which means it doesn't matter what trees we staple tabs too, however, when we can't use grids and need to individually treat trees, we have to identify them specifically). The 5 people in the crew are lined up at the start of the plot, 40 feet apart. The sub-crew leader has the topographic maps and the GPS and they begin at the edge of the plot. It is their job to make sure we stay in our plot. We move as a unit, with the leader beginning each movement. They begin by walking out 40 ft, the next person walks and lines up with them, and so on. Every 40 ft we stop, make sure we are in a line 40 ft from the next person, and staple a tab, then we walk 40 ft with the leader, staple a tab, and so on. It's important that we stay 40 ft apart because any more and the pheromones would not be as potent to the beetles, and the trees would be in danger (the idea of the grid is that a larger area is being covered by the pheromone scent). The second person has the forest service radio and is in charge of communications, the third person has a compass and assists the crew with figuring out our bearings. The fourth person is responsible for the medical kit, and the fifth person (which was me) is responsible for flagging the line they are walking. This is because the plots are larger that the 5 person line we are in. At the end of that one section, we basically pivot around, with the crew leader beginning at the flagging, which signifies the end of our last section, and we begin from that point so we know exactly what we covered. The plots are never a perfect rectangle shape. They are more organic looking shapes with weird angles, however, we can work in a rectangle, and the go back to areas that were not in the rectangle we worked, and hit those trees individually.
Because we are working in an area with an endangered species and it is also their mating season, we are not allowed to talk while we work. We used a series of hand signals to communicate certain group needs. We were also off trail and far away from the other crews (which is why we had the radios) and we needed to be very cautious with snags and widow makers in the area. A snag is a standing, dead tree, and a widow maker is a dead branch that's hanging from a tree. Both can fall at any time, especially in winds, which we had during our project, and it is so important to always be looking up. We also need to be very careful walking because we aren't on a trail. There were many times when we were forced to walk through or around piles of fallen trees, up boulders, down cliffs, and things like that (which is actually pretty fun). We also had to wash our hands each break before we ate because, you know, its probably not a good idea to ingest beetles pheromones, but we did wear gloves to help that. It would have been really cool to be able to finish this project with everyone and learn a lot more about GPS's and topographic maps. Because of the immense amounts of training and the technicality of the project, they are going to keep many of the same people on this project because they are familiar with it.
This particular project was very laid back and chill, mostly because all of the training we had to do. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were full of tree identifications and practice with moving as a group. Friday we did the actual work, and Saturday it SNOWED!! WHAT??? Yes! It snowed in Alpine, Arizona (we were about 8,000 ft)! It was pretty cold the whole week actually. Saturday we spent the day driving around and "scouting" the plots that need to be worked on in the next few weeks. It was a pretty boring being in a car all day. Sunday we did actual work, and Monday we left!
This whole week we were on a rather large campground at a lake, Lake Hulsey. It wasn't too comfortable actually, very bumpy. We also weren't allowed to have fires because it's getting to that point in the season when everything is pretty dry. The first night I was there, Tuesday, everyone went to bed around 8 or so, which is normal. I felt like I was having trouble falling asleep, and at one point in the night I started hearing voices. I woke up, and it turns out it was about 10:15 pm. I heard several boys who were on the crew and saw their head lamps. My first thought was that they were doing something they weren't supposed to be doing (boys, you know?) Then I heard them walking around and going to tents by me, asking the people if they knew who's tents were where. That's when I started getting really curious, and a little scared. I put my head lamp and shoes on and went out. The boys had already walked down a bit, but were turning around so I stayed by my tent. They saw me standing there and approached me, about 5 of them. They asked me if I had heard anything that night and I said no. They told me that 3 people had a heard what sounded like a woman's scream (the campgrounds weren't open yet, so no one else should have been near us, but we were far away from the next campground anyway). A few of the people that heard were close to my tent as well. The boys were walking around to everyone's tent (remember, their was 20 of us) making sure everyone was ok. I was surprised I didn't hear anything because I didn't think I was sleeping deeply. They really spooked me though, and I definitely had trouble sleeping the rest of the night.
The next morning with each person that woke up for breakfast there was a small cheer of "So and so's alive!". No one had any idea what the sound was the night before, and not everyone heard so it was really difficult to tell, but one thing was for sure and that was that no one wanted to hear it! Most of us slept with ear plugs in the rest of the week. Some of the theories going around, with help from the forest service, were foxes, mountain lions, and coyotes. Several people heard more noises by their tent the rest of the week (hooves, breathing, things like that). One of the less popular, and much less likely theory (but much scarier) was that we heard the work of a skin-walker, being in the APACHE forest and all (you know, spirits). Here's what Wikipedia says about skin-walkers, if you're curious (and I know you are):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker
Like I said, most likely wasn't a skin-walker, but "most likely" doesn't exactly help you sleep any more soundly in the middle of the wilderness, in a tent, by yourself.
All that spooky stuff aside, this was a pretty fun last project. The technicality of it was interesting, and very different from everything else I've done. Working with such a large crew is also always cool because you get to know so many people. I also got to work with some people I've grown close to, so that was nice to spend more time with them before I left. This whole experience has been life changing. I have loved everything I've done these past few months. It's kind of crazy I'm already done, but I am so thankful for the experience I have gotten. The southwest has treated me well these past few months, and I greatly look forward to being back.
