Happy Halloween

Scott Cully carving up an 1,800 pound pumpkin as part of the Halloween festivities at The New York Botanical Garden.  Pretty scary. Might make it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest jack o' lantern. Go here for the full story.  

The Web at Wudong

This magnificent spider web is on the gate, just before the bridge, at the main entrance to the Miao village of Wudong. People walk by it all day long, glancing up, then continuing on their way. No one bothers it. Nice metaphor for Wudong. A web of complex interactions, cultural norms, and government policies woven carefully together into something very beautiful. 

Species Determinations

The critical piece of a forest inventory is assigning the right names (both local and scientific) to the trees that you are counting and measuring. Call things by the wrong name and the data aren't worth much (a fact that is seldom appreciated, unfortunately).  During the recent fieldwork in Guizhou (see First Plot and Counting the Rings), Mr. Yang Chenghua from the Guizhou Forestry Academy (shown above looking through his Checklist of Plant Genera in China) was in charge of making sure that we called things by their right names.

Not only would he write the correct scientific names of all the trees in the field book after each transect:

But he also made Excel spreadsheets with the names of all the associated trees, shrubs, and herbs, that he recorded on each site:

A competent and hard-working botanist. A great guy. And a pleasure to work with. Xie xie, Mr. Yang. [NOTE: He carried that book with him everywhere - rain or shine]. 

Boxes

Boys playing with boxes in the market district of Leishan, Guizhou. This was shot right outside of the store where I was buying rope for the transects (see Transect Rope Redux). They were having a great time - until they noticed that I was filming them.

Forests and Fields of the Miao

A magical landscape. Golden rice fields, fruit trees, community forests, and tended stands of Cunninghamia lanceolata. Clouds roll into the valley. [NOTE: This landscape has been settled by the Miao for 1,000's of years]. 

Road to Xijiang

On traveling in southeastern Guizhou:

"Obliquely implanted, the tapering mountain summits are strangely shaped and placed;
Hanging in balance, the precipice walls form multiple fortress gates.
Disordered pine trees hug the slopes, as the first rain clears away;
Before the old postal relay doors, fog makes the hour seem late.
Lightning strikes on the tops of the crags, pouring down hundreds of streams; 
The blue-green confusions of sunken depressions are filled with millenial trees."

-Jing Daomo, et al.
Guizhu Tongzhi (Comprehensive Gazetteer of Guizhou), 1741 C.E.

The road from Leishan to Xijiang through the morning fog (shown above) is not trivial.

Going to Work

The day that we were trudging up the hill behind Xijiang (see Xijiang Landscape) in the rain to get to the forest to layout a transect, a lot of other folks were also walking up that hill to get to work. The first image shows a man with baskets (for forage) and a hoe; the second shows a farmer with his sickle and minimalist wooden scabbard on his way to harvest rice. [NOTE: I was the only one breathing hard - and occasionally stopping to take photos - as we climbed].

Transect Ropes Redux

I usually bring all the field equipment for the transects with me: Silva Ranger compass (w/o clinometer), Speigel relaskop for measuring slopes and tree heights, diameter tape, Garmin GPS 60 receiver, 30 meter fiberglas tape, several rolls of orange flagging, and a spherical densiometer (Model C ) for estimating canopy cover. The 20 meter, nylon transect rope with special knots to correct for slope is too bulky to bring and, as a result, I usually buy the rope in a town near to where I am doing the fieldwork (see Shopping for Rope in Tanai). In this case, I brought the rope in a small hardware store in Leishan, Guizhou. [NOTE: I bought 60 meters of nylon rope this time to make two transect ropes. They were both left with Mr. Yang in the Guizhou Forestry Academy. Check out the size of the woks in front of the lady measuring the rope].

Curious

This little guy stuck his head out of the window of his house as I walked by.  Luckily, I had my camera out. The construction of this house is different from that commonly employed in Wudong (see No Nails and Sawmill for Hire). Although framed with Cunninghamia poles, the walls are brick covered with sheets of Cunninghamia bark. Gives a nice texture. 

Milling Around

A group of older Miao women in all of their finery gathering in front of a local bookstore in Xijiang before heading off to a performance. It is pouring down rain. Look for the lady in the background at about 0:15 putting on her silver necklaces. [NOTE: We were heading out to run a transect in this weather (see Counting the Rings)].