Tabitha Maria Vinu (Natural Resources Conservation)

Undergraduate Intern at Alex Fraser Research Forest in Williams Lake, BC

Over the past 2 months I have been working as an undergraduate Intern at the Alex Fraser Research Forest in Williams Lake. Being an Intern I have had the opportunity to be involved in many different projects and help in the planning and execution to the extent that was possible with my skillset. One of the first projects I was a part of was layout out blocks for logging. After going around the block and seeing the regen from previous entries we went in and started laying out chunks within the block that were harvestable while retaining valuable regen. We also laid out Wildlife Tree Patches to protect important habitat. I was also a part of GPS the plot and mapping them on GIS and creating maps for site plans and operators. We also worked on managing the mule deer winter range. For which we selected clumps of trees throughout the block to remove that would open up the canopy to promote a multilayered, uneven-aged stand structure by reentering the block multiple time over 250 years. This helps maintain the diversity of habitat within the block so that it can provided, thermal and security cover for Mull Deer. During selection of the tree we took diameters of the trees selected and specie of the tree so keep track of the volume that will be remove and minimize negative impacts of removal.

In October I was introduced to doing stocking surveys and multilayered surveys which was a great opportunity to refresh my memory on the topics that I had learnt in university and also be in the field physically doing it. We also timber cruised two plots ( about 45 plots) at Gavin, and as a part of it we took DBH, Height, logs obtainable, recorded species and their status. I was also able to work with the contractors doing Beetle probing and worked with their crew in the field looking at trees in the previously detected beetle spots. We assessed trees for Fir beetle frass and if we found a tree with frass we would chop into it to check to see if we can find live beetle. I am excited to see what the rest of my term has in store for me!