Takeaways from Forest Health Watch
The Forest Health Watch program was created to try and determine which factors are most important in tree dieback. “We really want to know which environmental factors are the driving factor in dieback.” Everything from increased heat to precipitation levels, to soil type could be involved.
Forest Health Watch takes advantage of the iNaturalist app, on which citizen scientists can take photos of cedar dieback, pair it with a GPS coordinate and answer a few more specific questions about the tree. With this information, scientists can compare patterns of redcedar dieback to climate data, soil data, or precipitation data to better understand the factors involved in the dieback, identify sites where trees are particularly vulnerable, and make predictions about where to source cedar tree seeds from in the future based on climate predictions.
To engage more of the Issaquah Community in the Forest Health Watch program, the Issaquah Alps Trails Club invited Joey Hulbert to give a virtual presentation and subsequent hike. A group of about 15 local residents joined Joey on Tradition Plateau to learn more about the iNaturalist app and how to identify Cedar trees that are potentially suffering from dieback.
Some key points about collecting data as a citizen scientist:
Data on both healthy and unhealthy trees is useful to researchers- Even if you don’t come across any cedar dieback on your hikes, you can still help out! Researchers need data comparing the differences in the surroundings of healthy and unhealthy trees to truly understand what’s happening.
You don’t need to capture every tree- Capturing two to three trees on a hike is plenty! You can even go back and visit trees you’ve already captured every once in a while to update the data.
It’s easy to get involved- All you need to start is some photos of the tree, its leaves, bark, and cones if possible, and a GPS point. You can even take pictures while you’re hiking and upload the points to your computer later if using mobile apps isn’t for you!
On the 3-mile hike we spotted both healthy and unhealthy cedars, sometimes right next to each other, highlighting the lack of understanding we currently have about why dieback happens. If you’d like to become a citizen scientist, you can learn more at Forest Health Watch today.