Photos: Inventory and Mapping at the National Zoo

Last Friday, the High School Summer Crew completed their fourth and final professional development day of the summer. As a reward for meeting their tree touch goals, development days featured a number of activities, each focusing on a different 'green' industry to help foster professional development. Not only did the Summer Crew reach their tree touch goal, they surpassed it by 534 trees - caring for 5,579 trees. Great job!

While most visit the National Zoo for its wonderful array of animals, the Crew spent their morning navigating its grounds using a combination of GPS, laser range finders and topographical maps. Their objective: try to identify trees (without looking at its often conveniently placed species tag), considering its location on the map and approximate height. This outing at the Zoo gave the students an opportunity to learn more about mapping and tree inventory.

Geographic Resources Director Tom Buckley provides some initial instruction.

GPS helps determine this tree's location.

Crew members use leaves to help identify this tree.

An example of the topographical maps Crew members used.

Crew member Sarah Turner uses a laser range finder to measure a tree in the distance.

Summer Crew students with Urban Forestry Crew Members Jabbari Brew and Edward Bell.

You can check out the rest of the pictures from this event on Flickr.