The 33rd annual measurement of all white spruce trees in the Reserve West hectare reference stand near Fairbanks took place Aug. 13-Sept. 29.
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| Volunteers helped Glenn Juday measure more than 2,000 trees this fall in the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest. |
About half the field effort came from high school and college volunteers working with Juday, a professor emeritus of forest ecology. Mark Winterstein from the Bonanza Creek LTER also contributed three work days.
The 2020 field effort measured the height, height growth and diameter of 2,176 trees. The top condition, canopy status, insect damage and other indicators on each tree were also carefully documented. Measurements were completed in 20 field days.
Rain and wet conditions slowed the work, Juday said. By August, the total precipitation at Fairbanks Airport for the previous 12-month period was the highest in the 116-year record in the Fairbanks area. The abundant soil moisture over the past year and the absence of extreme warmth in the summer daily temperatures provided optimum conditions for spruce growth. For the first time in the monitoring series, several trees grew more than 100 centimeters in height, and the tallest tree was 14.5 meters, he said. Over the previous year, 17 trees died, primarily from lack of light under the increasingly dense forest canopy.
The following two photos were taken from the same permanent photo station, in 1989, six years after the Rosie Creek fire, and this fall, 31 years later.
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| This photo was taken in 1989, six years after the Rosie Creek fire. |
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| This photo was taken in 2020 in the same location. |
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