Puppy

I was having a meeting with the Director of the Song Thanh Nature Reserve (see Song Thanh N.R.) and a group of his forest rangers out on second floor veranda of the park headquarters - when this little guy trotted out. [NOTE: Apparently so much a part of life at the Nature Reserve that nobody even reacted to the puppy. Except me. Who reached for his camera].  

Driving Out of the Buffer Zone

A follow-up to yesterday's post. Driving down the mountain back to the reserve headquarters, the conversation in the truck was very animated.  As was the horn honking. 

Food From The Forest

Hiked into the buffer zone outside of the Ta Bhing commune yesterday at the Song Thanh Nature Reserve (see Song Thanh N.R.). Was accompanied by Mr. Thanh, two rangers from the reserve, and a villager from Ta Bhing. We stopped to rest on the way down the mountain, and the young man from Ta Bhing took advantage of the break to wash the greens that he had collected in the forest. [NOTES: Was a beautiful, yet strenuous hike. I won the fall-down contest (2x), while Mr Thanh won the leech contest (7X). The music in the clip is a recording of what was playing in the truck when I did the editing].

Suspension Bridge at Ta Bhing

On the road to the Song Thanh Nature Reserve in Quang Nam province, Vietnam (see Song Thanh N.R. and Rattan Workshop), there is a cool suspension bridge at the entrance to Ta Bhing commune.  Although the video clip is really about the bridge, it's hard to ignore the denuded slopes in the background and the color of the water in the river.  

Glimpses of Transects

Random clips from the first attempt to run an inventory transect.  Dr. Ban is laughing and scolding at the end because one of the rangers has counted and measured a plant that not only is not a rattan, it's not even a palm.  

Transect II at Song Thanh

The transect the second day took two hours to finish.  This is a shot of team 1 relaxing and waiting for team 2 to finish.  I am pleased that the ranger in the foreground is looking at the rattan manual we put together for the workshop, and amused that his colleague to the right seems to be making a call on his cellphone. [NOTE: Cell phone coverage in Vietnam is amazingly complete.  Only very rarely can you not get a signal].

Lunch at Transect I

The first transect we did took all day to complete. This is about four times as long as it should normally take, but the first day in the field always involves figuring out a bunch of things, e.g. the rattans, the compass, the GPS, recording the data. We stopped for lunch after 6 plots.  Everyone was tired and hot, yet happy. [NOTE: We tallied ten species of rattan in 2000 square meters, and counted and measured almost 300 individuals. Leeches were scarce].

Which Rattan is That?

Dr. Ninh Khac Ban shows workshop participants how to identify "may sap" (Calamus dioicus), one of at least 20 local rattans at the Song Thanh Nature Reserve in Vietnam.  After learning how to identify the species, we will head into the forest to inventory wild populations of rattan. I doubt that everyone will look as fresh and neat in the transect photos. [NOTE: Posted from an internet cafe in Thanh My].  

Song Thanh N.R.

A shot from the second floor of the offices of the Song Thanh Nature Reserve in Quang Nam province, Vietnam. I will give a training workshop here next week on the identification and inventory of local rattans (see An Unusual Rattan and Weaving a Trivet) for representatives of six nature reserves in the Central Truong Son Mountains. The basic objective of the workshop is to help reserve staff start collecting the baseline data needed to develop management plans for the sustainable exploitation of wild rattan. [NOTE: Vietnam is the third largest producer of rattan in the world; a large percentage of this material comes from the Truong Son Mountains].