ESR101 Week2 Lab: Field Recon

Outline for day:

1. Meet in the staging area, right outside the lab
2. Before you go, short written notes on what you expect to see
3. Do a field reconnaisance of areas near PSU
4. Have a demonstration and some practice of using a GPS and map to get your points
5. Make written comments during the recon
6. Discuss points along the way (see map)

map of the tour

1. Be prepared for the hike

• You will need to be prepared to hike for 90 minutes. It's only about a 60 minutes of hiking with time for some demonstrations and observations.
  • good shoes
  • appropriate clothes for the weather
• You will need to take notes - a small notepad is best (like a steno pad)
• You will have to be present and paying attention to what you are seeing in the context of this course

2. Short written exercise

After a brief discussion of the route, what questions might you expect to answer on this tour? What are you looking for? Write these down.

3. Recon

• We will see a range of habitats and possible corridors right near PSU. Because of the time limitation, we will be taking some short cuts.
• The essence of recon is to get a broad scan of the area and identify paricular features that would be worth more study.
• Another value of recon is to look for safety, health, convenience features. (When I do a recon, I need to identify a boat ramp, store for food, toilets, poisonous plants, cell phone coverage gaps, and road conditions.)

4. GPS and map reading

• How to use and record lat/long coordinates on simple GPS units
• How to use an iPhone or automobile navigation systems for this purpose
• getting the spot on the map (google map, city map, other)

5. Writing comments along the way

• Creating a record is part of the scientific method.
• Latour - connecting an observation to later analysis.

6. Discuss as you go

• Discussion of points along the way is a good method to refine your observation and share knowledge.

Outcomes

• You should be able to write a meaningful question addressing biodiversity in the context of Portland's neighborhoods and parks
• You should have thought of questions that you can answer through direct observation and which ones would require other information.
• You should be able to describe a particular observation and record it linked to a location using both GPS coordinates and graphically on a digital map
• You should understand how to refine your observations by asking questions and discussing this with other people familiar with the area.