legends · 3 min read ·
The Understorey
A forest survey tags a new tree for every surveyor who joins the crew.
**Forest Research Unit — Permanent Sample Plot Survey**
**Plot:** Hollin Wood 7 · **Area:** 0.25 ha · **Species:** oak, birch, hazel understorey · **Protocol:** all stems over 7 cm DBH tagged and measured
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**Survey 1 (3 June)**
Crew: M. Ostler, R. Fenn, J. Ledger · Surveyors: 3
Trees tagged: 41 · Previous survey (2021): 41
*No change. Canopy closed. Soil damp. Three woodpecker holes in oak 17.*
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**Survey 2 (9 July)**
Crew: M. Ostler, R. Fenn, J. Ledger, T. Hay (trainee) · Surveyors: 4
Trees tagged: 42 · Previous survey: 41
*One additional stem. Tag 42, birch, DBH 21 cm, straight, no branches below 4 m. Not recorded in 2021. A tree of 21 cm DBH does not grow in four years from nothing. Crew leader Ostler assumed it had been missed.*
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**Survey 3 (14 August)**
Crew: M. Ostler, R. Fenn, J. Ledger, T. Hay, A. Pryor (volunteer) · Surveyors: 5
Trees tagged: 43 · Previous survey: 42
*Another additional stem. Tag 43, oak, DBH 24 cm. Tree 42 has grown 2 cm in girth in five weeks. The plot's understorey is thinner than in June. Hazel stools have died back around both new trees. Ostler recorded: "Check for earlier misidentification."*
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**Crew notes (R. Fenn, 14 August)**
We have a rule on the survey: leave the plot as you found it. You carry in what you carry out. The new stems are not a problem for the data. They are a problem for the arithmetic.
On the way back to the van I counted the surveyors in the car park photograph from June, the one we take for the record. Three of us in orange hi-vis. Then I counted the trees. Forty-one. I checked the photograph from July. Four of us. Forty-two trees.
I do not like the sum. I will not say more in the notes.
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**Survey 4 (11 September)**
Crew: Ostler, Fenn, Ledger, Hay, Pryor, S. Walsh (technician) · Surveyors: 6
Trees tagged: 44 · Previous survey: 43
*Tree 44, hazel, single stem, DBH 18 cm. Hazel does not grow as a single stem. It has no leaves. Bark smooth, pale, like skin. Fenn declined to tag it. Ostler tagged it himself.*
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**Crew notes (J. Ledger, 11 September)**
Two things from today.
First: I counted the new trees from the south edge of the plot. They are in a line, 42, 43, 44, and each is a body's width from the one before. They are along the track we use to carry the equipment in. They are along the line we walk.
Second: Tree 42 has a lean. It leans toward the path. When I first saw it in July it was straight. Now it leans like a man looking over a fence. It has two knots at head height, set apart the way eyes are, and the bark below them has split in a long vertical line.
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**Survey 5 (9 October)**
Crew: Ostler, Fenn, Ledger, Hay, Pryor, Walsh · Surveyors: 6
Trees tagged: 47 · Previous survey: 44
*Three additional stems since September. Surveyors: 6. Trees recorded as new: tags 45, 46, 47. Fenn refused to enter the plot. He sat in the van. Hay went through alone, with the tape and the callipers, and tagged all three.*
*Crew leader noted at the foot of the form: "Number of surveyors this season: 6. Number of additional stems this season: 6."*
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**Final plot summary (Forest Research Unit, 30 October)**
Plot: Hollin Wood 7. Surveys completed: 5. Final tree count: 47. Original count (2021): 41. Additional stems: 6. Surveyors this season: 6.
Fenn did not return for the final survey. His name is still on the roster. At the south edge of the plot, in the row of new trees, Tag 47 stands where the track enters the wood. It is a young oak, slightly bent. It is wearing a high-visibility jacket, size L, hung on the lowest branch.
The jacket fits.