| 1 |
| 00:00:00,820 --> 00:00:02,320 |
| Am I looking at the right tree? |
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| 2 |
| 00:00:03,420 --> 00:00:04,340 |
| That might help. |
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| 3 |
| 00:00:04,680 --> 00:00:05,960 |
| Yeah, it's a ton of fun. |
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| 4 |
| 00:00:06,020 --> 00:00:06,880 |
| I really enjoy it. |
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| 5 |
| 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:08,640 |
| You know, you get out to these different places. |
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| 6 |
| 00:00:09,100 --> 00:00:11,460 |
| I was just going to be like, Matt, I might need your help. |
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| 7 |
| 00:00:11,920 --> 00:00:17,000 |
| Having the river and the gorge with all the rockiness, I just think is really neat. |
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| 8 |
| 00:00:17,100 --> 00:00:21,660 |
| And just like the diversity of trees and shrubs and things that you find here. |
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| 9 |
| 00:00:22,100 --> 00:00:25,360 |
| Hi, I'm Sammy Demers with Outside Science Inside Parks. |
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| 10 |
| 00:00:25,540 --> 00:00:28,020 |
| We're at New River Gorge, the newest national park. |
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| 11 |
| 00:00:28,020 --> 00:00:33,820 |
| Park scientists and interns here are combing the forest to keep an eye on all the plants that make this place so special. |
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| 12 |
| 00:00:34,220 --> 00:00:36,680 |
| It can be kind of messy on some days, so get ready. |
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| 13 |
| 00:00:57,490 --> 00:00:59,490 |
| Forests are really important to these parks. |
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| 14 |
| 00:00:59,710 --> 00:01:03,710 |
| And if we don't know what's happening in the forest, we can't manage them appropriately. |
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| 15 |
| 00:01:03,810 --> 00:01:09,510 |
| So going to these monitoring locations over time and really checking on what the forest is doing, how is it changing, |
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| 16 |
| 00:01:09,910 --> 00:01:12,130 |
| is important to inform the management in the parks. |
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| 17 |
| 00:01:12,610 --> 00:01:16,110 |
| We have a certain select number of plots that we visit every year. |
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| 18 |
| 00:01:16,670 --> 00:01:17,670 |
| And in those plots, |
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| 19 |
| 00:01:17,790 --> 00:01:22,170 |
| we look at the number of trees in the plot, how healthy the trees look, |
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| 20 |
| 00:01:23,070 --> 00:01:29,430 |
| whether there's any damage to the trees, any invasive species or things like that that could harm the trees. |
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| 21 |
| 00:01:29,770 --> 00:01:31,410 |
| We also look at regeneration. |
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| 22 |
| 00:01:31,410 --> 00:01:37,530 |
| So like what's coming up on the forest floor, what kind of seedlings are there, how tall they are, what species they are. |
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| 23 |
| 00:01:38,010 --> 00:01:44,290 |
| We also look at every sort of species within the plot, you know, record what's there. |
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| 24 |
| 00:01:45,550 --> 00:01:47,490 |
| Four and ten. |
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| 25 |
| 00:01:47,790 --> 00:01:54,750 |
| So we also will look at how tall the tree is, whether it's a canopy tree or a sub canopy tree. |
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| 26 |
| 00:01:54,750 --> 00:01:56,250 |
| It's very tough in the rain to do. |
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| 27 |
| 00:01:56,910 --> 00:01:59,370 |
| And after all that, we characterize the stand. |
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| 28 |
| 00:01:59,770 --> 00:02:01,410 |
| How dense is the shrub layer? |
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| 29 |
| 00:02:01,410 --> 00:02:02,630 |
| How open is the canopy? |
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| 30 |
| 00:02:02,910 --> 00:02:04,950 |
| And so really getting a sense of what the forest is like. |
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| 31 |
| 00:02:05,470 --> 00:02:09,030 |
| Yeah, sometimes those rainy days can be hard just because you're wet all day. |
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| 32 |
| 00:02:09,030 --> 00:02:16,350 |
| But it's nice being out in the fields and getting to move around and do practical things instead of just sitting in an office all day. |
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| 33 |
| 00:02:16,350 --> 00:02:20,430 |
| There's an oxydendron 42 6.4. |
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| 34 |
| 00:02:20,430 --> 00:02:27,310 |
| And it's also really nice to know that, you know, you're trying to make a difference in keeping the forest how they were. |
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| 35 |
| 00:02:27,310 --> 00:02:29,270 |
| And, you know, it's really neat. |
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| 36 |
| 00:02:29,270 --> 00:02:31,270 |
| 20.8. |
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| 37 |
| 00:02:31,270 --> 00:02:37,650 |
| It's incredible to take young people out in the woods and help them discover all of the things that are out there. |
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| 38 |
| 00:02:37,650 --> 00:02:40,830 |
| And it's always an adventure and we always see something new. |
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| 39 |
| 00:02:40,830 --> 00:02:45,030 |
| And it's just really fun to share that with young people every summer. |
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| 40 |
| 00:02:45,030 --> 00:02:45,870 |
| A lot of trees. |
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| 41 |
| 00:02:45,870 --> 00:02:52,230 |
| A lot of my career has just been academic and like class the room learning with some excursions. |
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| 42 |
| 00:02:52,230 --> 00:03:00,570 |
| And so I think actually getting more hands on experience with tree identification and getting to know different landscapes is really valuable. |
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| 43 |
| 00:03:01,130 --> 00:03:05,130 |
| You go way off the trail in some of these places, have to cross the river. |
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| 44 |
| 00:03:05,130 --> 00:03:10,190 |
| I know there's been plots where we have to like wait across the river in a real shallow section. |
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| 45 |
| 00:03:10,190 --> 00:03:12,910 |
| We get over, we hike off a trail in the middle of nowhere. |
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| 46 |
| 00:03:13,190 --> 00:03:15,870 |
| And then there's a really old house foundation there. |
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| 47 |
| 00:03:15,870 --> 00:03:20,750 |
| And that's just really cool to see because you're like, who knows how many people even really know about it besides us. |
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| 48 |
| 00:03:20,750 --> 00:03:23,130 |
| Even the hard days are fun. |
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| 49 |
| 00:03:23,130 --> 00:03:27,310 |
| And if it wasn't fun while you were doing it, it has a fun story at the end. |
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| 50 |
| 00:03:27,310 --> 00:03:30,210 |
| And it all goes to a greater cause. |
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| 51 |
| 00:03:30,210 --> 00:03:34,970 |
| So even if we're wet or hot or tired, it's still an adventure. |
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| 52 |
| 00:03:34,970 --> 00:03:38,130 |
| I totally thought there was like another one that came in and I was like, no, that's the same tree. |
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| 53 |
| 00:03:38,130 --> 00:03:40,470 |
| I think it's really nice. |
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| 54 |
| 00:03:40,470 --> 00:03:43,470 |
| Like it's something that makes me really happy to think about that. |
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| 55 |
| 00:03:43,470 --> 00:03:45,030 |
| I can go and do science and a lot of really cool things. |
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| 56 |
| 00:03:45,030 --> 00:03:45,190 |
| I think it's really nice. Like it's something that makes me really happy to think about that. I can go and do science and a lot of really cool things. |
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| 57 |
| 00:03:45,190 --> 00:03:47,490 |
| I can go and do science and a lot of really cool things. |
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| 58 |
| 00:03:47,490 --> 00:03:50,490 |
| Thanks for watching this episode of Outside Science Inside Parks. |
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| 59 |
| 00:03:50,490 --> 00:03:51,830 |
| We'll see you next time. |
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