Forest engineering undergrad Casey Warburton (class of 2023) did field research throughout Oregon and California during the summer of 2022.

Where and who did you work for?
I worked in many research forests all over Oregon and California including the HJ Andrews Experimental forest, Hinkle creek and even down in the redwoods. As for who I worked for, I assisted many grad students under Catalina Segura and Kevin Bladon while also doing tasks that they had specifically for me.

Was there a favorite project?
Yes, two that I particularly enjoyed were doing synoptic sampling of the HJ Andrews watersheds where we hiked up the 2 main streams collecting water samples and also hiking up most every tributary that flowed into the 2 main streams. The second project was looking at how water flows through the soil after large storm events. To get this project setup we dug 3 soil pits along a hillslope near streams in 3 different locations to install sensors that detect water in the soil.

What is one memory that sticks out?
One memory that sticks out to me was when my partner and I were taking samples out of one of the main creeks in the Andrews forest and looking around at the water, the trees all the rocks and downed logs and thinking how we were probably the 3rd or 4th people to ever see the stream right where we were. It was like we were pioneers or early explorers seeing new land that had never been touched before.

What did you enjoy most about this job?
What I enjoyed most about the job was the variety of work I was able to do and how many different projects I got to help with. Seeing all the different research that was going on just in our lab was eye opening to all the different parts and pieces of a watershed and how they interact.