Last week, I went to Tudor Farms in Cambridge, Maryland. It's a large estate on the Eastern Shore, whose owner has granted SERC permission to perform research on the effect of invading salt marshes into pine forests.The Phragmites dominated salt marsh is invading the loblolly pine forest, killing off the pine trees with both the rising water and the higher salinity of the water. It's fascinating to see occur! When we first walked into the estate to check in, we walked into a large fancy barn filled with duck figurines (apparently called blinds for hunting, as a friend later corrected.) Then once we had a walkie talkie from the land managers, we were ready to head out to the plots to put bands on the trees.
On the trees in each plot, we put a band on each marked tree to measure its growth over time. A marked tree had to be at least 10 cm in circumference. First we had to shave the tree (there's a fancy word for shaving a tree, but I can't remember it). That's me shaving the tree on the left. Next we had to adjust the metal band for each unique tree. Finally we took an initial measurement of the band. The band expands with the tree's growth, so it does not restrict or harm the tree as it grows. 
To the left is the majority of the group of us who went out to Tudor Farms on a quaint little bridge! The whole estate is quite impressive and it's amazing to see preserved wildlife property. The whole property is for sale right now, so if you have $30 million and want a hunting property with lots of wetlands, here's the property for you! I really hope who ever buys it keeps the wetlands, and does not destroy them.
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