We got helicoptered out of the Nouragues reserve yesterday after a two-week botanizing marathon. The heli-man made a point to bank sharply, hug hills, skim tree-tops and point out illegal gold-mining operations. We were shoe-horned in among damp and fetid backpacks but the flight still wasn't long enough.
At Nourague's Inselberg station two plateaus spread out beneath the camp - Le Petit Plateau and Le Grand Plateau. Each plateau is gridded by paths that delineate 1 hectre parcels and along the paths are 160, 1msq nets that have been intercepting falling fruit for nearly a decade. Since the nets' installation the station manager has gone out every two weeks, collected their contents and shipped them off to Paris. The years-long collection has generated an amazing record of the plateaus' phenology. Our goal for the two weeks was to identify to species as many trees as possible within a 15m radius of each of these nets. This will bring the phonological data into sharper relief and add another layer of information to subsequent studies on the plateaus. The operation required four teams:
1. Botanists with eagle vision, keen smell and a staggering mental catalog
2. Griffers with curved tree spikes, harnesses and pole pruners
3. Pro-climbers
4. A cartography team
The botanists made the first pass and identified the vast majority of trees to species. The standard set was that 2-3 botanists had to feel 100% certain of an ID for it to pass muster. If not, the tree got flagged for collection. The spike team followed and collected what was reachable by climbing relatively short and thin trees. The climbers followed to clean up what was left. Team cartography updated the map and tree locations.
At the end of the day, back at camp, the botanists would would go over what had been collected by the griffers and climbers to take another stab at identifying things that they hadn't been able to in the first go-round. Initially, including data entry and plant pressing, work didn't finish up until midnight or 1am and we were back on the trail by 8am. (I was generally passed out by 10pm...but was up early to brew strong coffee for the sleep deprived botany crew). As the project progressed the botany team learned more species, needed less collected and was able to sleep more. At least one sample of each collected species was pressed by the head of the herbarium from the Paris Botanic Garden. She took those with her to incorporate into the collection of 10 million samples that she and her 20 full-time staffers are currently re-sorting.
Among things to be collected there were often groups of trees not too distant from one another. In those cases we (Benjamin and I) would climb one tree and slowly make our way across from one tree to the next at canopy level. (Canopy level was generally in the 9 to 15-story building range). I hadn't done this kind of thing before and as it turns out, it's just about the best way imaginable to pass the time. "Up there" is a truly different place. It is airier and moving and home to very different things. It is a collection of crows nests, a hanging garden and a zoo.
Day one my arms cramped themselves into a right angles and my hands, into fists. I hadn't climbed regularly for three months. The second and third mornings arrived a kaleidscope of upper-body ouch for both me and Ben. After that it was all gravy. Seth, a PHD candidate from Berkley was my steady "Anchor Man" for the two weeks. He learned a host of knots in no time and took easily to the fancy rope-work required below to facilitates traverses above. In down time he left no leaf unturned.
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