Forest Ecology

Instructor: Steven Clark            Clark Community College    Email: sclark@clark.edu

Lacamas Park Field Trip

Summary Paper [To be posted by Friday April 17]

Lacamas Creek Field Trip

April 2009

Type your answers.  Do spell check.

Single space.  12 point.  Limit your work to one page if possible. 

20 points.  Due April 22 2009

1. Using your field guide, name one of the flowers we saw.  Use the common name and the Latin name.
2. Name the two trees of western Washington that are our climax species.  Use their common and Latin names. 
3. I said, “Douglas fir need disturbances.”  Why is that true?  Why can’t they grow in a deep forest where there is no disturbance? 
4. At one point we saw oak trees.  Why were the oak able to compete at that site but not at other places along our hike?
5. Why does a hemlock need a nurse log or nurse stump?
6. What biotic forces conspire to degrade a fallen log; what causes it to rot (you may need to refer to your book because I discussed this only briefly on the hike)?
7. What is the ecological benefit of this?
8. What strategy allows this plant to compete in a dark forest?  Identify.
9. Identify.
10. Explain why flowers can compete here.
11. What role does this organism play in the forest?
12. From the Pojar book, tell me something interesting about this plant.  Identify.
13. Tell me two pieces of information that you felt was interesting but that I haven’t asked about on this sheet.