students have contributed over 4,000 hours to monitoring post-fire recovery
 

 

PONDEROSA PINE SEEDLING SURVIVAL STUDIES

Latest data on trees planted in April, 2001 along the Quemazon Trail

Mountain Elementary School, Los Alamos

 
Spring 2001
Spring 2003
Total number of trees
106
81
Alive
84
43
Dead
22
38
Percent Survival
79
53

 

Latest data on trees planted in April, 2002 in Cabra Canyon

Barranca Mesa Elementary School, Los Alamos
Fall 2002
Spring 2003
Total number of trees
204
188
Alive
131
59
Dead
73
129
Percent Survival
64
31

 

Latest data on trees planted in April, 2001 along Rendija Canyon

Aspen Elementary School, Los Alamos

 
Fall 2002
Spring 2003
Total number of trees
280
248
Alive
189
113
Dead
91
135
Percent Survival
68
46

 

In the fall of 2001, students from Mountain Elementary set up permanent 1/10-acre plots to monitor the survival of ponderosa pine seedlings planted in April of that year. Using circles with a radius of 39 feet, 3 inches, students sampled the planted area to find the percent survival of the trees. In April 2003, students returned to the plot and resampled the survival rate.

Not surprisingly, students found that the overall survival rate dropped from 80% to 53%. This survival rate for trees planted in 2001 is higher than for trees planted in 2002.

Plots established by Barranca Mesa Elementary students in the Rendija Canyon area show that harsher conditions dropped the survival rate of pines planted there from 64% to 31%.