Dear Donors,

I can not truly express how grateful I am to the Rubenstein Internship Donors for contributing to this amazing summer helping Ph.D. candidate Peter Clark study climate change's effects on various tree species. Not having any field work or research experience the Donors have not only allowed me to have one of the best summers gaining valuable field experience, but also to be immersed in forestry topics that I have learned in the Rubenstein School Core Curriculum. I was immersed in topics including dendrology, silviculture, dendrochronology, forest management and climate change. Wanting to pursue a career in the Environmental field and look at how climate change is affecting the natural world around us, this was a perfect internship to get my hands dirty with not only field work but having a better understanding of how a research project forms and develops. 

A majority of Peter Clark's field work was done throughout UVM’s Jericho Research Forest which had 17 different plots of various sizes, terrains and tree species in these plots. We were trying to reconstruct data that was taken in the 1940s and 1960s to see how the forest has changed over the last several years. To find these plots in Jericho, you follow a map to different parts of the forest. After finding the plot you look for four corner posts telling you the cardinal direction of that post. Laying out tapes in a coordinate grid, we pin a tac into the tree; next we take the DBH, condition (alive, standing dead or a snag), and the coordinates of that tree.

Taking the coordinates are the most important because in the fall, Peter and I will be GIS mapping every tree on these plots. This will show us what the plots looked like back in the 1900s and now in 2017. Here we can not only see how climate change has affected the forest but also how timber production and natural occurrences have an affect on trees. This will be my first introduction into GIS mapping and I am really excited to see how the programming works and to have a better understanding of how to correctly use GIS. 

Working alongside and learning from Peter Clark and fellow Rubenstein student Suki Wilder was an experience I will never forget. I learned from Peter the ways of the forest and how to form a research topic and what goes into an overall research project. I learned the ways of the field and what was expected like the long hours and the harsh weather conditions and having clouds of mosquitos following you around. Suki said once “After a while foresters don’t flinch at walking through spider webs.” Well I will always flinch and rustle around after walking through an old web. Being taught from an older more experienced undergraduate student like Suki was an experience in itself. Having the knowledge that Suki and Peter taught me throughout the summer, I will be able to use not only in the field but in daily conversations. 

Lastly I would like to conclude with a last thank you. Thank you for giving me this valuable experience that will propel me not only academically but also in my professional endeavors. Thank you for contributing in making this an amazing summer. 

Sincerely,
Jack Goldman