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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 25, 2012)
12 schools december25 2012 VHS Forestry Class: From the Student’s Perspective This year, the Vernonia High School Forestry Class has been learn- ing new skills, how to use equipment and raising money for the program. Instruc- tor Byron Brown forwarded us these re- ports the students have written about the work they are doing as part of the class and what they are learning. We thought we would let them tell our readers about their class in their own words. The Forestry Class-Mr. Brown started this class last year. It has been a great class because we are always working or doing something to help out other peo- ple. We started splitting fire wood last year to benefit our forestry class by rais- ing money for class equipment for future projects. This year there has been more people wanting to take this class because they like being outside and doing stuff for people. We have also sold Christmas trees to the locals in town, so they can have an awesome Christmas and we can get money for our class. We appreciate everyone that has helped our class grow. ~Adonis Hopkins Log Scaling-Mark Dreyer came to our school to teach our forestry class how to scale logs. To calculate board feet of a log, measure the diameter of the log, and then measure the length of the log. After that, use a Scribner log scaling chart to find how many board feet you have in each log. After you figure out how many board feet are in each log, you add all the board feet of all the logs together to get the total board footage. ~Bo Clark Forestry Summary-We started a log- ging job so that the school can put in a green house. We started by cutting down about four or five trees the first day. Then we started to limb the trees so that we could start on the next ones. When we took the limbs off, we put them in a brush pile so we can burn it and clear out the area. We continued falling trees like crazy and got a lot of trees out of there, way more than we thought there were going to be. We then made a bunch of brush piles and started to yard the logs out of the area to bring them closer to the road, so the log truck can take the logs. We then scaled the logs after we got all them out by the road, so we know how much board feet we can get. After we got done with all of that we ac- tually started to cut a bunch of it up for fire wood. We got a good bit of wood out of there. And right now we still have a lot to do, because it’s still a big mess, there is a lot of brush to clean up still, some fire wood to cut , and get the logs taken care of. ~Austin Ragsdale How to Use an Electronic Clinometer- When you first get the Clinometer, you do not think ‘wow, this is one strange cli- nometer looking thing.’ You think ‘what is this weird piece of plastic?’ I have had a little experience with clinometers. I first learned what it was during an AP Biology trip to Opal Creek, one of Or- egon’s old growth forests. Old growths are cool, just looking at them makes me feel old. But with old trees comes tall trees, and we had to find out how tall they were. We were given a device called a clinometer, which, though angles and trig ways, found Two From VHS Make All State Teams Vernonia High School seniors Sara McMahon and T John Wolf were named to the Division 2A All State Teams following the fall sport season. McMahon, the Player of the Year in the Northwest League, was named Second Team All State in volleyball. Wolf was named Honorable Mention All State at Tight End in football. Congratulations to both of these student athletes on this outstanding accomplishment! the height of the tree. They were pretty basic tools, you just needed to know how far away from the tree you were and you could quickly find the height. But with an electronic clinom- eter, it’s a little different. It’s not shaped like the clinometer that I’m used to, and once Mr. Brown asked me to find out how to work it, I was intrigued. I held the little plastic tool up to my eye and pressed the ‘on’. Then a DIST would show in the corner, a large number I could change with the other two buttons on the clinometer, plus and minus. If I pressed the ‘on’ again, it would take me to a new screen with a percentage sign in the corner. The larger number changed when I moved. I soon found that when I held it perfectly level with my eye, then it was zero. When I pointed it down, the number went negative, when I went up it turned positive. After I pressed ‘on’ for the third time I came to a HGT in the corner with a number that changed as I moved again. The clinometer came with in- structions, but I read them several times and I couldn’t find out how to get an ac- curate height. But after standing around and trial and error attempts, I figured out how to use it. After it taking a whole class period to figure out I felt pretty ac- complished with myself. The first screen you come to is the distance from you to the base of the tree. I found this part to be the most dif- ficult because I am lazy at measuring distances and I just kind of round them up. I think this is the part where I was getting the most trouble from and if I had measured the dis- tances more accurately then I might have learned faster. The second screen is the angle of your eye to the base of the tree. This is an easy part if you use both eyes at once. The last screen is the height of the tree. You just point the clinometer at the top of the tree and the height shows. It seems like a simple thing to do, but I have never been very good with electron- ics. They have a tendency to stop working around me. I guess this time I got lucky. If I ever have something like this to do again, I’m go- ing to look it up on you tube. ~Bailey Williams Tree Plotting--In late September our forestry class went up to the Bear Creek line and did tree plotting. We plotted a lot of trees and covered a lot of ground. I’m new to the forestry class so I didn’t really understand how to plot trees. But after learning I figured out that it’s not very difficult to plot trees. There is just a lot of competing brush. I had fun and am looking forward to doing it again. ~Dakota Hensen VHS Winter Sports Report Wrestling-Coach Chris Barnes and his young team seem to be getting their feet under them. So far the team seems to be growing and learning and gaining experience. Dawson Shay, T John Wolf and Ethan Johnston have all wrestled very well in several matches in the upper weight classes. At the Banks tournament on December 5 the Loggers lost all three dual meets against Banks, Rainier, Yanhill-Carlton/Gaston but received wins from Shay by pin, Wolf by pin, Zane Green by pin, Bridger Steward by pin, Mikol Pihl by decision, At the Warrenton Tournament on December 8 th Jason Bouslaugh, Damian Young Michael Bouslaugh, Green, Johnston, Shay and Wolf all performed well. On December 14 the Loggers wrestled in their only home meet of the season against Scappoose JV and Warrenton. Vernonia defeated both Scappoose 28-22 and Warrenton 34-24, receiving wins from Johnston by major decision, Shay by pin, and Wolf the Neah-Kah-Nie Tournament over the holiday break, followed by a trip to Gervais on January 3. The Loggers return to league play on January 4 at home against Neah- Kah-Nie. Boys Baketball-The Loggers record was 2-1 in Northwest League play following a 51-28 victory over Knappa at home on December 21. The boys sit in fourth place in the league and have a 2-3 record overall. The Boys had several non-league games on their upcoming schedule with an away game at Clatskanie on December 22, a trip to Girls Basketball-The Lady Loggers are 2-1 in Northwest League play following two straight victories over Gaston and Knappa. On December 11, the girls defeated traveled to Gaston and defeated the Greyhounds 65-45. On December 21 the Lady Loggers beat the Loggers from Knappa 58-37 at the new Vernonia gymnasium. The girls were in third place in the and have an overall record of 3-3 after the win over Knappa Vernonia was scheduled to travel to Clatskanie on Saturday December 22 for a non-league game. The Lady Loggers return to league play at home on January 4 against Neah-Kah-Nie and also have a home game on January 12 against Faith Bible. Phone (503) 429.2617 Kitchen Countertops Fax (503) 429.0941 Fireplace & Furniture ABSOLUTE@AGALIS.NET Tubs & Vanities www.absolutemarbleandgraniteinc.net Ethan Johnston of the VHS wrestling team. Photo by Mckenzie Titus.
