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
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Ethan Johnston of the VHS wrestling team.
Photo by Mckenzie Titus.