In September I was given the opportunity to reach out to my geography professor about an interest in his dendrochronology lab. He replied and sure enough when October rolled around a trip was planned and I was set on going.

Dendrochronology is the study of trees over time, and the Western side of the Ouachita Mountains has trees over a hundred years old with the history of both controlled and wild fires within their trunks. The fires have since stopped for many years and the forest floor is beginning to become thick with litter and new brush, making it susceptible to wildfires in the dry summer months.

Going into my first experience in field work, I had no idea what was going to be expected of me, nor did I know anyone else who would be joining. Normally I would be too anxious to join something I knew next to nothing about, however coupled with a not so ideal roommate situation I decided that I needed the experience of official fieldwork and I needed a break from being on campus.

Our destination was a 4 hour road trip South, and we stopped in Hot Springs to eat dinner. Now, I’m vegan, and I never tell anyone because I hate stereotypes being placed on me before you get to know me, so we were thinking about where to eat and since I was the newbie everyone wanted to know my preferences. It came to a point where I couldn’t lie and to my surprise everyone was really nice about it. There weren’t any stupid jokes and it was just a normal thing. Although I had packed all the food I would need, we all came up with something we could eat together and I’m not sure if my peers will ever understand the appreciation and sense of belonging I felt on this trip.

Our lodging was a biological research station with no service and wifi that cut out as soon as the hot water kicked in. Walking in through the front door was like stepping into the early 2000’s with peeling posters and the smell of moss. directly in front was the kitchen area with a small bathroom to the left, and two separate bedrooms also to the left with as many bunks as they could fit in them. to the left was the large common area with long tables and windows that surrounded all three sides adjacent to the kitchen.

That night, I didn’t sleep with anticipation. We were supposed to be up at 7 but I was laying in bed awake at 4, waiting until everyone’s alarms went off. It was a nice cool October day, perfect for the task at hand. I was introduced to all of the tools and we were off.

So we have set points we hike to and we put a stake in the ground. Then, we measure the 7 closest trees to that stake that are over 20 cm in diameter. Next we take the measurement, record the direction and distance from the point. Then we use these things called borers and we twist them into the tree and they have a hole in the middle so its like a tree straw. We put these cores into a paper tube and label them with the tree’s scientific name, date, who cored it, and the location it is from. We only had 2 types of tree species this time, pine and oak. Oak is the worst tree to core and I got my borer stuck to the point that ropes had to be involved to pull it out! On the last point, we had to climb at an incline of what felt like 70 degrees, all the way near the top of the mountain. we were sliding on the loose fallen leaves and heaving up a storm but we finally made it and finished out the job.

On the way back down I could feel my ankles giving out and I understood why they are called hiking boots and not hiking shoes, you really need that ankle support!

Here is someone twisting the borer into a tree^ but after that we put it into a tube and label it according to the location name and tree species. Then in the lab you can see the fire scars and calculate how frequent the fires are and what the forest was like hundreds of years ago. Most of the trees we cored though were pretty young so we will have to see.

That night when we returned to the station, we all worked together to cook dinner and take turns showering. We made curry. rice, and chicken on the side and it was delicious. After our professor went back to his cabin we played card game after card game and gave each other fortunes and talked about the dendrochronology lab back at the college.

When we woke up it was storming so we weren’t able to continue coring trees but the resident manager of the biological station took us on a tour of the hill where we were staying. He has a PhD in geology so we learned a lot about the makeup of the mountain. One of my favorite things about the trip was the amazing weather, after the rain let up the breeze was welcome, and after all of the climbing we did, I was glad it wasn’t hot.

It was just a weekend trip so after we returned we packed up and headed back, stopping again in hot springs to eat lunch.

Happy 2023 everyone! I hope you enjoyed this first post of the new year and stick around for my future posts. This trip was really motivating for me and allowed me to explore different niches in my major while meeting some new friends.

Until next time,

Katelyn