John Knox, PLS will be presenting on the Utah Forest Dynamics Plot.

This project was done with Dr. James Lutz in Utah and the help of the Utah State University.

The Utah Forest Dynamics Plot (UFDP) was established in 2014 as a third research plot in a network of old-growth forests in the western United States. Within each plot, over 30,000 trees and shrubs are tagged, identified, and mapped. Every tree or shrub that reaches a diameter of 1 cm at breast height (1.37 m from where the plant exits the ground) is part of the study. The tags make the research a ‘permanent plot’ study, where the individual trees are revisited every year to assess their condition (mainly whether any existing trees died, and how, or if new trees have grown enough to join the data set). The UFDP is located at about the highest elevation where closed-canopy forests occur in the United States – about 3,000 m. The forest trees include: bristlecone pine (the longest-lived individual tree on earth), limber pine, subalpine fir, white fir, Engelmann spruce, Colorado blue spruce, aspen, Douglas-fir, as well as a few individuals of ponderosa pine, two-needle pinyon, and juniper.