Today I learned three things in the tundra: 1. How to use an electric drill 2. How to piece together matted trail. 3. That oil is slimy.
So, as you know, the NIMS grid frame has not shown up yet and Kelsey and Rob are still in Barrow. Hopefully, the frame will be delivered tomorrow in Barrow so they can come down tomorrow night, with the frame of course. Today, Jeremy and Jenny worked on total season growth measurements on the dry site. They counted the total number of leaves and inflorescences on up to fifteen plants in each control and OTC plot. Today they finished the final measurements on 18 plots in the dry site. While they measured and counted, I worked on matted trail. The matted trail is made of plastic porous pavement system panels. The panels are basically pieces of heavy plastic that are 1 meter by .5 meters with sides that have six edges that overlap and match up. They just have to be attached with screws and an electric drill. I had never used a drill before today and I learned to not press the “trigger” while I’m holding the screw…kind of painful…oops. The hard part was aligning the trail. There were two tracks that were supposed to be parallel to each other to support ATVs so that they do not damage the tundra too much. This was hard to do because in a lot of areas the mats were sitting in water and tundra moss, b ut the water was really slippery. I realized that it was not muddy, but rather oily. Oil was seeping up through the tundra and made it hard to pick up the trail pieces. I was pretty proud of myself for not only figuring out how to use the drill but also for getting the matted trail drilled together.
I'm drilling the last screw into the last piece of trail. The matted trail will help prevent ATVs from tearing up the ground cover too much by dispersing the vehicle weight and keeping the tires off the trail.