Real-Life Communication
You are an environmental technician working in the forestry industry.
Your forestry company wants to know what variety of trees are growing in an
area they are planning to log.
"Usually, you have to write up simple
monitoring reports," says environmental technician Diane Proudley. "These
aren't elaborate research reports, but they do need to be filled in properly."
You
drive up the valley until you come to an open area and see trees that you
believe are pines. But what type of pine are they? You look up at one tree
-- it is tall and straight, but doesn't have many branches until quite
far up the trunk. Inspecting the cones, you find that they are large and cylindrical
in shape.
You look at the dark yellowish-green needles, and believe
that they must be more than five inches long. The needles grow in clusters
of three. Finally, you calculate the approximate altitude where you are standing.
You figure you are at an altitude of 650 to 1,000 feet.
Are you looking
at a lodgepole pine or a yellow pine?
Use the information below to
come up with your answer:
Lodgepole pine:
- Inland tree that is tall, thin and straight
- Grows at elevation of 1,470 to 11,300 feet
- Grows in many types of soil, from gravely to swamps
- Prefers well-drained loam (a type of soil)
- The cone varies in shape from short and round to cylindrical shaped
- The cone is usually small -- from 0.75 to two inches long
- The needles are formed in pairs on a reddish-brown or black twig
- The needles are 0.75 to three inches long, stiff, sharp and often greenish-yellow
Yellow pine:
- A large crowned tree, straight trunk often without branches for most of
its length
- Grows in a variety of soils
- Prefers open areas and altitudes of 980 feet
- Will grow in altitudes up to 3,900 feet
- Cones are three to six inches long, cylindrical
- Needles over five inches long
- Needles grow in clusters of three
- Needles are dark yellowish-green