♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Pam Halstead: Hi, I'm Pam Halstead, and this is "Field Trip."

We're here at College of the Redwoods to learn about the exciting new program they have called the Outdoor Campus Collaborative.

Pam: Like sinus in your nose.

Maddie Lopez: Exactly, like those little holes in your nose.

Pam: Three, four.

Valerie Elder: How many did you count?

Pam: I was going with you.

We're almost the same size.

Pam: The first instructor we'll meet is Maddie Lopez, a professor of forestry and natural resources.

Pam: Maddie, I'm so happy to be here.

What can you tell us about these incredible trees?

Maddie: I know, I'm so excited to be here at College of the Redwoods, looking at these amazing redwoods.

These guys, they produce a bunch of cones, but you'll notice that they're very small, and their seeds, right, are even smaller.

Right, Pam?

Look at all this litter?

Right?

Imagine how challenged-- Pam: Now, this isn't, like, "Don't litter, please."

So it's not trash.

Maddie: Not trash, no.

This is something that falls from the tree, just something that we call litter.

It sits on the top of the forest floor.

It hasn't yet started to decompose, so that's why we designate the term "litter" to this.

And so you can imagine how challenging it might be, right, if you're a seed, coming from one of those cones, how hard would that be to actually germinate on something like this.

A very few amount of seeds that come out of this cone are actually gonna be able to sprout and form a baby tree.

The very first thing that will come out of a seed is called the radicle, and that will turn into the rooting system for the tree.

Pam: 'Cause you gotta suck water up.

Maddie: You gotta get water, right?

And so it's imperative, it's so important that that seed does not dry up.

That's why it's important that we have some areas of exposed mineral soil.

And so, one thing that we like to see is a little bit of low-intensity fire come in and eat up this litter, so that way, there's a couple of patches of bare mineral soil for those seeds to germinate and become a new baby tree.

Pam: So fire is important then?

Maddie: Fire is important.

And what's amazing about these redwoods is that they have so much tannic acid built up that, actually, their bark is so protective, there's not a whole lot of damage that will occur from the fire.

Pam: So they can survive?

Maddie: Yeah.

Oftentimes, what you'll see for redwoods is this resprouting.

They have an amazing capability to resprout.

This is something that's down at the base, so we call this a basal resprout versus something that might come out of the tree itself.

Pam: So they can recover then, even if something, like, caused this to fall down or burn up, which is unlikely based on what you've talked to me about with the bark here, that could grow into another tree?

Maddie: Exactly.

Maddie: One thing that's really cool about their foliage is that they actually have two types of foliage.

We call it dimorphic foliage.

Interestingly enough-- Pam: Di means two and morph means shape?

Maddie: Exactly.

Pam: Okay, cool.

Maddie: So, here's the first type.

This is what you'll typically see, right?

They're kind of flat, linear, I guess you might say.

Yeah, and they're kind of out in this flat spray here, very attractive.

When you turn it over to the underside, what you'll see is this kind of silver look, right?

And what you're actually seeing is these white bands here, and you know what we call them?

Stomatal blooms.

Interestingly enough, those stomata are also responsible for allowing this tree to drink up water from the fog in the air.

And so let's compare this foliage, right, or this is what we call our two-ranked foliage.

And so this is what you'll see in, you know, environments that have a bit less sunshine.

Maybe it's more in the shade.

So what they're trying to do is expand their surface area.

They wanna get as much photosynthetic machinery as they possibly can out there to make those nutrients for itself and to be able to send that into the tree.

And we can compare that with this foliage right here.

So this is something you might see in an environment that has a lot of light.

Pam: 'Cause it's taking energy to make those little leaves and then-- Maddie: Exactly, it's expensive.

That is extremely expensive to make.

And so, something like this, this is a little bit less expensive but still gets the job done.

Pam: Right, so it's an energy saver.

It's more efficient then, I guess, in a place where there's lots of light?

Maddie: That's a great way to think about it, yes.

It's much more efficient and they're still doing their job.

They're still paying their way, right?

They're able to photosynthesize, do their job, but they just don't need as much surface area.

And so this is something that's pretty unique about the redwood.

male announcer: Field Trip Trivia.

female: The name we use for Redwoods and other evergreen trees is "conifer," which means what?

Is it a, Cone-bearing plants; b, Trees with fur; or c, Talkative plants?

♪♪♪ female: The answer is a, Cone-bearing plants.

♪♪♪ Maddie: I can't wait to tell you about one of my favorite oaks on campus.

This right here is one of our members of our white oak group.

The foliage is actually something that's really important when it comes to identifying your oak species.

Maddie: This is the bur oak.

The scientific name for that is Quercus macrocarpa.

Can you say that, Pam?

Pam: Quercus macrocarpa.

Maddie: Beautiful, well said, well said.

And so what you'll notice is that this guy has got some pretty unique foliage.

Here, you can see that this sinus--that's what we call these deep lobes, yeah, the opening where the-- Pam: Like sinus in your nose.

Maddie: Exactly, like those little holes in your nose.

And it leaves this upper portion of the leaf, it gives it kind of almost a resemblance of a crown, you could say.

This part of the leaf--we could call this the midvein-- kind of fades in.

It starts to narrow as it gets close to the base that's connected to the actual twig.

We call that the petiole.

Pam: So it's like the little sticky thing that holds the leaf in place, that holds the leaf to the rest of the tree?

Maddie: Exactly, it's like the stalk of the leaf.

Yes, it's this piece right here.

So, part of this, you know, responsibility here of this leaf, this is nothing more than some machinery for the tree to photosynthesize and to feed our main stem.

And at the same time, these guys are also being fed with water and nutrients from the tree.

All righty, Pam, so this here is one of my favorite red oaks here on campus, at College of the Redwoods.

This is one of our larger specimens, meaning that we just have quite a bit more girth on our main stem here.

Pam: This is a beauty, Maddie, really is.

And the bark is especially interesting.

It's got all these cracks in it that are going all the way down like this, and then it has these organisms here, or living things that are living on it too, like, taking advantage of this space that the red oak made.

Maddie: Exactly; you know, I have to say that's one of my favorite parts about oaks in general is that they just host such an amazing biodiversity, all kinds of species on them, right?

So we have so many birds that choose to nest on our oak species, an amazing abundance of insects.

We call it a symbiotic relationship.

One thing I wanna point out about the northern red oak is its pretty distinctive bark.

They oftentimes resemble ski tracks or ski slopes, as some might say.

As you pointed out, right, we have these amazing kind of ridges and furrows that have formed along this bark.

They're very vertical in nature, and so what you see is that this, right here, is what we call the furrow.

They're pretty shallow for the red oaks, specifically.

And then we have this smooth-topped ridge that goes all the way down to the base of the tree.

And so, this can really help to cue you in when you're trying to identify the northern red oak.

♪♪♪ Pam: Ahh, they're pointy.

They're pointy.

Maddie: They're pointy.

Pam: They're pointy.

Is this the crown?

Pam: Could there be a crown on this one?

Maddie: I guess you could kind of consider it a crown.

The crown was more so isolated for the bur oak species, just because that sinus was so-- Pam: Oh, so deep, and this is not, they're about the same.

Maddie: Yeah, and so that's another identifying feature is that this sinus really only goes about halfway to reach this midrib here.

And so a whole lot more shallow and, on top of that, we have these pointy little bristles that line the edge of our lobes.

Quite a charismatic look.

Pam: Thank you, Maddie.

I learned so much from you.

Maddie: You're welcome.

It was amazing to have you here.

Pam: Bye, bye.

Maddie: Bye.

male announcer: Field Trip Trivia.

female: What is the other common general classification of trees which are not a conifer?

Those that drop their leaves at the end of the growing season and produce new leaves in the spring.

Is it a, Oak trees; b, Deciduous trees; or c, Icecream-bearing trees?

♪♪♪ female: The answer is b, Deciduous trees.

♪♪♪ Pam: Next up is also a professor of forestry and natural resources, Valerie Elder.

Pam: Hi, Valerie.

What do you have to show us here today?

Valerie Elder: I am very excited to show you how to measure the height of a tree.

Pam: That's cool 'cause it seems so high up there.

And I mean, how are you gonna do it without climbing up to the top.

Valerie: Right, there's lots of ways to measure the height of a tree.

You could climb to the top and measure it.

You can use technology, like a drone or an airplane to fly over and measure it.

But I'm gonna show you a way that anyone at home can measure the height of a tree.

And we're gonna use right angles, or a right triangle with a 90-degree angle, which has 2 sides that are equal distance.

Pam: To be clear, a right triangle is any triangle with a 90-degree angle.

But for this specific example, do we need one with two equal side lengths?

Valerie: Yes; so, to measure the height of the tree, we need to create a right angle.

And you can do that if you find, like, a stick on the ground, any stick.

Doesn't have to be perfect, but it should be about the same size as your arm.

We need to walk out a little bit until this stick is the same height as the tree from our perspective.

Pam: Wow, that seems like we have to go pretty far.

Valerie: Yeah.

Pam: Okay, all right.

Valerie: We're going for a walk.

Valerie: Now, you can kind of look over my shoulder, Pam, and see how my arm is flat and the bottom of the stick is at the bottom of the tree, and the top of the stick is at the top of the tree.

Pam: Yup, I see that.

Valerie: So this is creating a right triangle, where the stick is about the same length as my arm, and then there's an even bigger triangle happening that we can't even see.

We have to sort of imagine it.

Here's the little triangle.

Now, from me to the bottom of the tree, to the top of the tree, is a big triangle, a right triangle.

And so, the distance on the ground is gonna be about the same distance to the top of the tree.

Pam: Oh, right, because they're similar triangles.

Two triangles with the same angles and corresponding side lengths that are proportional.

Valerie: Yes; so, to calculate this, Pam, we're gonna need to calculate what our pace is.

Pam: You mean, like, our--the distance between our feet as we're walking?

Valerie: Yes, exactly, so if you're a runner, that's sort of like you are running somewhere and you calculate your pace, or how long it takes you to run a mile.

This is the same thing, but it's a little slower and it's so we can estimate distances and we want it to be about--let's make this easy for us, let's do 10 feet.

Now we're gonna count our steps that it takes us to travel 10 feet.

Ready?

One, two, three.

How many did you count?

Pam: I was going with you.

We're almost the same size, you're a bit taller, but-- Valerie: You can count either both feet.

This is one step.

That's called a double pace.

Pam: Oh, okay.

Was that what you were doing?

Valerie: That's what I would do 'cause then I don't have to remember as many numbers.

Or you can count every single one.

One, two, three.

Pam: So you did six, but you went three?

Valerie: Yeah, so my one-step pace would have been six.

My double pace would have been three.

So we just traveled 10 feet.

We know that number.

What we don't know is how large our pace is.

But we do know it took us 3 steps or 3 paces to travel 10 feet.

So what would be our pace in feet?

Pam: Well, it'd be 10 then divided by the number of paces which was 3.

Valerie: Yes, okay?

So that would be 3.33.

So, every time we step, we're traveling 3.33 feet.

♪♪♪ Valerie: Now we know what our pace is and now we know we are at one corner of the right triangle.

So, to help solve this question, we need to count the number of paces or steps it takes us to travel from right here at the corner of our imaginary right triangle to the base of the tree.

Pam: All right.

Valerie: Are you ready?

Pam: I'm ready.

Valerie: Okay, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

We know it took us 14 steps or paces to get from one corner of that right triangle, our imaginary right triangle, to the base of the tree, which is the 90-degree angle of our right triangle.

And we know each pace or step is 3.33 feet.

So what is the distance traveled for 14 paces?

both: This looks like a job for Number Woman!

♪♪♪ Number Woman: That's a great question, Pam.

Let's set up the diagram and figure it out.

So, what we start with is what's called an isosceles right triangle, so basically what we have is we have a tree that's one side and then we have the paces which is the other side, and because it's isosceles and right, this side's the same as this, and we have a right angle and then we can utilize that to figure out the height of the tree and then, remember, we have the stick where we started the paces, and I'm gonna write how to spell an isosceles right triangle because it is important that we have both of those things to make it work.

So then we know that it was about 3.33 feet per pace and 14 paces were walked out, so then, pace cancels pace and we're left with feet which is about 46.62 feet.

So since we know the distance between the tree and where we started is about 46.62 feet, and we know that we have an isosceles right triangle, we know the height of the tree is also about 46.62 feet.

Super exciting.

And back to you, Pam.

both: Thanks, Number Woman.

Valerie: Okay, Pam, now it's your turn.

Pam: Oh, my gosh, I have to find the perfect stick.

Valerie: Let's find the perfect stick.

Pam: Let's do it.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Pam: Mm, mm-hm, I think I may have it.

Valerie: Ah, Pam, that's the perfect stick.

Pam: Yay.

Valerie: We found it.

Pam: Now that I found the perfect stick, I need to find the perfect tree.

Valerie: How about that one?

♪♪♪ Pam: One, two-- Pam: Three, four-- Pam: Fifteen, sixteen.

Valerie: So, Pam's pace is 4 feet.

Pam: Yes.

Valerie: And she traveled 16 paces or steps to get to the base of the tree.

Pam: Yes, I did.

Valerie: So how tall is the tree if Pam's pace is 4 feet and she traveled 16 paces to get here?

Pam: Take the 16 paces and multiply that by 4 feet.

Valerie: So, Pam, how tall is the tree?

Pam: It's 16 times 4, which makes 64.

Yeah, that's tall.

Thanks so much, Valerie, for teaching me that really cool trick about measuring heights of trees.

It was fun.

Valerie: You're welcome, Pam.

I had fun with you too.

You're welcome here at CR anytime and I'll see you around.

Pam: Thank you.

♪♪♪ Pam: Finally, the last instructor for the day is Jasmine Iniguez, a professor of aquaculture.

Pam: Hi, I'm Pam.

I'm so excited to hear about what you do here in the Outdoor Campus Collaborative project.

Jasmine Iniguez: So today we're gonna be going and grabbing a water sample to conduct water quality on the pond.

Pam: Let's go.

Jasmine: Right, let's go.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Pam: Do you want me to hold your paddle or anything?

Jasmine: Here we go, how about you take this.

Pam: Okay, good.

Nice.

Jasmine: And then I'll try to-- Jasmine: So today we're gonna be using an API PondMaster test kit.

Really easy to use and relatively available at your local pet store or Walmart.

Pam: 'Cause people have aquariums, like, fish at home.

They need to make sure that, yeah, the fish are healthy too.

Jasmine: Yup, yup, and this will test a variety of parameters.

So today, we're gonna look at pH, ammonia, nitrite, and phosphorous.

Pam: Okay, cool.

If we start with pH and we talk about what that is, it's a scale, right, that goes from 0 to 14, and in the center, 7 is neutral.

So is neutral a good thing?

Jasmine: Neutral is a good thing.

So you want your pH to be at 6.5 to 7.

However, it does depend on the species.

Some fish might be more tolerable to higher amounts of pH versus some other fish might not be.

But--so it's also important to know what's in your pond and then have an idea of your pH measurement.

Pam: So if the pH measurement is low, that means it might be higher in acid.

That's a confusing thing for people, sometimes, you know?

And then if it's higher than 7, then it might be higher in a thing called the base, which you said, bicarbonate of soda.

Jasmine: Yes, so you'd use, typically-- Pam: And they neutralize each other when you combine them.

Jasmine: They will, you're almost acting as a buffer.

Pam: Mm-hmm, okay, sweet.

All right, so here we go.

Jasmine: And you're gonna go ahead and drop that in.

We're gonna go ahead and grab our pH reagent.

Pam: It's right here.

Jasmine: Where is it?

There it is; thank you, Pam.

Pam: No problem--I can see it.

Jasmine: All right, so to test the pH, we're gonna add five drops of this reagent into the sample.

Two, three, four, five.

Perfect.

Gonna go ahead and cap it and cap our sample piece as well.

And we're gonna go ahead and give it a little shake.

Turn it back and forth.

And we're gonna wait a couple minutes and let that sit.

And then we'll read the sample using this handy-dandy-- Pam: Oh, color chart.

Jasmine: Well, a color chart, that will allow us to read our pH right here.

male announcer: Field Trip Trivia.

female: What does pH stand for?

Is it a, possibility of Helium; b, probability of Hafnium; or c, potential of Hydrogen?

♪♪♪ female: The answer is c, potential of Hydrogen.

♪♪♪ Pam: So we can leave that one down and then we can start a new one?

Jasmine: Yup, exactly.

Pam: All right, I'll help you.

May I?

Jasmine: Yes, of course.

Pam: Thank you.

So, 5 mls, here we go.

Jasmine: Yeah, and we'll do ammonia next.

Jasmine: Okay, perfect, so now we have--for this one, there's two reagents so we have bottle one and bottle two, so we're gonna add bottle one first.

Pam: So there's chemical things going on when we do this?

Nice.

Chemicals are reacting.

Jasmine: And then this one, we're gonna add eight drops.

Pam: 'Kay.

Oh, that's more than five.

Jasmine: Perfect.

All right, yeah, go ahead and hold that for me, Pam.

And we're going to add solution number two and add another eight drops.

Yeah, this one's got more, whoop, three, four-- Pam: Three, four, five.

Jasmine: So when you have higher amounts of ammonia, it's usually due to, like, overfeeding or, in this case, maybe, decayed organic matter may also create high amounts of ammonia, and we wanna keep those levels essentially zero, and ammonia gets converted into nitrite, so that's what we're gonna be testing next.

Pam: All right, sweet.

A tube, all right, thank you.

Jasmine: There you go, perfect.

Yeah, go ahead and put five-- Pam: Work on my getting this in there to the proper level.

Good.

Jasmine: Do you wanna add the drops to these?

Pam: How many?

Jasmine: So for that one, it is-- Pam: Oh, does it say?

Add five.

Okay, good.

One, two, three, four, five.

Jasmine: Perfect.

Pam: Okay, so next?

Jasmine: All right, next we're gonna test phosphate.

Pam: Phosphate, all right, great.

Jasmine: So, it's a nutrient, so it comes from all of this vegetation and the organic matter as well, also the phosphorous, and so, high amounts of phosphorous can lead to algal blooms.

Pam: 'Cause plants like it.

Jasmine: Yes, they love it.

And so, there's a lot of vegetation in this pond, so I would, you know, hypothetically predict that this pond might have higher phosphates in it because of all the uncontrolled vegetation around it.

Okay, perfect, so we're gonna-- or, actually, I'll hold this one.

So this one is a little bit different.

We're gonna add six drops.

And then we're gonna shake it and then we're gonna add another six drops using the other solution.

Pam: One, two, three, four, five, six.

Jasmine: Perfect, all right, so yes, we're gonna go ahead and cap it.

Pam: 'Kay.

And then we're gonna do bottle two?

Jasmine: Yes, and then we're gonna do bottle two.

Pam: You go ahead and do that--thank you.

And that was six, it says on this one.

'Kay.

Okay, great.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Jasmine: Perfect.

Right, we'll give that another shake and look at that, all right.

Now, using the color chart, we're gonna go ahead and get the measurements of our pH.

So, our pH is coming out as, like, a lighter green color, so I would say it's ranging between 6.5 and 7.

We're gonna go ahead and read our ammonia, using the chart.

So, our ammonia is a good solid zero.

So this is good.

So the next one we're gonna read is our nitrites.

So, our nitrites are a really beautiful blue, so that's also at zero ppm, so that's good.

Pam: All right.

Jasmine: All right, so the last one we're gonna read is our phosphates.

It looks like our phosphate is a little higher, so I would say it's about 0.25 ppm, so this is because of that, you know, heavy vegetation that is around the pond.

To alleviate and lower the phosphate, we'd wanna just manage the pond a little bit more and control and remove that vegetation to be able to do that.

Pam: That makes sense.

Pam: Jasmine, I've noticed that there are some mosquitoes around here.

Is there anything that fish can do to solve the problem?

Jasmine: There is, so there is a fish called the mosquito fish, and these guys essentially eat the larvae of mosquitoes, and so it helps manage that mosquito population.

So we're gonna go ahead and pull some up.

These were caught in the trap.

So here's one.

And actually, this one's a female, so the female is very plump and then she's also got this black spot.

And that's how you can tell if it's a female.

A male won't have that.

Pam: Whoop, there she goes.

Jasmine: There she goes!

Pam: Jasmine, how did you get interested in fish and the wildlife here where there's water?

Jasmine: So, I started fishing as a teenager, and I just fell in love with the sport and then I wanted to learn so much more about the fish.

I wanted to learn about their environment, I wanted to learn about their reproductive habits.

And then when I went to Humboldt State as an undergrad for a Fisheries degree, I took an aquaculture class and absolutely fell in love with the production side of things and the farming aspect, and that's what led me into getting a higher up degree in aquaculture.

Pam: Wow, and that's so neat 'cause it's a journey that you took through school and then you took this one class, and there you go, changing your life.

Jasmine: Right, exactly.

And now, I-- Pam: And here you are at an amazing place.

Jasmine: Yes, it's amazing.

We've got some natural resource available for us to use that the students can, essentially, do this and more.

Pam: Yeah, so great.

Pam: Thank you so much for bringing us out here, Jasmine.

I learned so much about fish and the water.

Jasmine: Yeah, of course, Pam.

It was great having you.

Our pleasure.

Anytime to come visit.

Pam: See you.

Maddie: I already feel the nerves set in, man, oh no.

Pam: This looks like a job for-- Valerie: This looks like a job for-- Shall we do it together.

Pam: Want me to push you in?

Jasmine: Yeah, yeah.

Usually, I-- Pam: That's good.

No, that's perfect.

♪♪♪