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Program Methods, Procedures & Protocols: 1. Establish study areas and transect grids for researchers. Groups of 4-5 students will be assigned to a study area. 2. Researchers will measure and tag focus plants in their transect grid areas. Focus plants will include:
3. One linear transect will be established for each study site. From a known landmark, an 80-foot (24-meter) linear transect will be established. Along that transect, perpendicular transects will be measured out every 20 feet at a 90o angle in each direction. Along each 20-foot perpendicular transect, all focus plants within arm’s length (3 feet) in each direction along the perpendicular transect line will be recorded and measured. 4. All plants measured will be tagged. 5. Measurements will be recorded on data log sheets and entered into a website database. 6. Tagged plants will be re-measured every two years. New plants will be added in study areas when found. 7. Results will be regularly compared to determine if patterns are evident and if estimates of growth rate can be determined.
Measurement Tools Used: Location of Study and Vegetation Class/Type
Length of Research: Predicted outcome: Research: Vasek, Frank. 1995. “Ancient Creosote Rings and Yucca Rings,” The California Desert: An Introduction to Natural resource and Man’s Impact. June Latting and Peter Rowlands, Editors LaPre, Lawrence. 1979. “The Physiological Ecology of the Mojave Yucca.” Dissertation, University of California, Riverside. Kobaly, Robin. 2006. “Age determination of ancient southwest desert plants using growth ring data of cleared vegetation”. Study for The SummerTree Institute to develop age estimation tools and curriculum for their “Saving The Ancients” program and “Discovering The Ancients” program. Various studies at Joshua Tree National Park, Joshua Tree National Park |
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The SummerTree Institute is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation, organized to provide new and refreshing viewpoints toward our environment, our place in it, and our responsibility to it.
A brief description of Joshua Tree National Park, including weblinks for the U.S. National Park Service site as well as other sites of interest regarding the park.
When you go out in the desert and actually look at the plants, and I mean sit and look at them, you begin to see the diversity and complexity this land has to offer. When you walk next to the plants and rocks of the desert, you begin to feel connected to them, as your grandparents would have felt, if they had lived here. It is not a harsh place, if you slow down and listen.
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